Dodgeball at TDI High
by idk97
Summary: It's a normal day in PE for Cody till he is hit by a dodgeball and forced to go to the nurse's office. There, he meets his assailant and the two form an unexpected friendship.
1. The Start of a Long Day

**So before I start this story I should probably let you know that this is looking like it will be the largest fanfiction I have worked on and though it may not seem like a lot to some, to me it is. RIght now it is shaping up to being 5-6 chapters long, which to me takes a lot of dedication out of time I don't necessarily have. Thank you for understanding.**

**Also I know the title sucks, but I couldn't think of anything better. Oh well, on with the show.**

**Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Total Drama**

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><p>Chapter 1- The Start of a Long Day<p>

"Well crap!" Cody muttered to himself. He was late for physics… again and was currently rushing towards the class from the school parking lot. The first bell had already rung, meaning he had 5 minutes to get to class before becoming officially tardy. With 4 of those minutes gone, he was in an all-out sprint to get there on time. Normally, the brown haired teen wouldn't really care about being late, but today would be his eighth tardy, which meant that he would probably be given a Saturday school. Needless to say he really didn't want a Saturday school, especially with the carnival coming around.

He entered the main building and rushed down to the science classrooms, frantically trying to get there on time. Pushing past kids left and right probably wasn't helping him win any popularity contests (not that he would have won anyway), but right now he didn't care about being polite. He rounded the corner full speed, and the science classrooms were now in sight. Cody dared to look at his watch while still running, and seeing that it was five seconds to 8:05, his heart sunk. He could never get there in five seconds, but despite this he kept running.

"Maybe Mrs. A will be nice today," Cody said trying to reassure himself, "I mean I am only a couple seconds late."

Even as he said this, he knew it wasn't true. Mrs. Ashlan was one of the cruelest, most hard-nosed teachers in the school. She was all about punctuality, and clearly Cody was not. The only reason she didn't totally hate him, was because he was the best student in her class, but this must not have been that redeeming of a quality, because Mrs. A has never once given Cody a break about his absences. Cody turned down the long hallway that was the science department.

"Maybe I can make it…" Cody told himself still sprinting.

His physics room was at the end of the hallway, but Cody was not ready to give up just yet. He counted the seconds down in his head, while simultaneously keeping track of the distance.

Three seconds and twenty feet to go. Two seconds and fourteen feet. One second and eight feet to go. The bell rang with Cody still outside the classroom. He finished only four feet away from avoiding tardiness, but still ran inside with only a second over the deadline.

'_Maybe Mrs. A didn't notice,'_ Cody thought to himself.

As soon as he thought it, he realized that was impossible. He had just sprinted into the classroom like a bull in a china shop. Not only was Mrs. A glaring at him with her cold, piercing green eyes, but so was the whole class. Cody smiled sheepishly and tried to take his desk in the back of the class, but before he could he heard a resounding boom come from the front of the room, "And where do you think you're going Mr. Anderson?"

"T-to my seat Mrs. A?" Cody stammered.

"You were late m'boy! You of all people should know I don't tolerate tardiness in this class!"

Cody hung his head. Saturday school here I come, he thought. He looked back at his fellow classmates. A few looked sympathetic, a few were giggling hysterically, but the only reactions he cared about was his friends. He tried to make quick glances to each, and to his surprise they each had different reactions. On the opposite side of the room sat his friend Noah who seemed genuinely curious about how this situation was going to play out. Plastered onto his smug face was a grin that most likely said, "Sucks to be you." Then he looked to the seat next to his own where Gwen was. She sat there gritting her teeth and glaring at Mrs. A, clearly wishing that a meteor would rain down and serve justice. Cody felt flattered that Gwen would hypothetically murder this women for him. Lastly, he looked at the seat in front of his own, where Sierra sat. While Gwen was utterly ticked off at Mrs. A, Sierra was on the verge of crying for her "sweet little Codekins" as she liked to call him. Taking solace that each of his friends cared about him at least a little (even if it was being amused at his misfortunes) he walked up to accept his punishment.

Then Mrs. A did something that surprised him, "Well Cody, I can see you obviously tried hard to get here, so maybe you are learning something about the importance of punctuality," she said as if pondering her own words, "Therefore I will give you a test, and if you pass it I will not give you the Saturday school that you deserve."

"Th-thank y-you Mrs. A!" Cody said sounding as if he was ready to salute the lady.

"Your test will be…" she began clearly trying to make up something on the spot, "Calculate the speed at which you ran to this classroom."

Cody nodded and walked up to the whiteboard to write the information down. After doing some quick calculations, he came up with the final answer of 5.1 miles per hour.

Mrs. A accepted his answer and dismissed him to return to his seat at the back corner of the class. He sat down and took a long sigh. He had really lucked out this time. Gwen, who was to his right, whispered to him, "Do you realize you are the first kid to not get punished for being late to this class..."

Cody scoffed, "If you call that being late. Honestly, I deserve a break."

Gwen rolled her eyes, "Well whether you were or not, I think someone just became the teacher's pet."

"I'm not so sure about that," Cody said unsurely, "I don't think it's possible for her to have a favorite. She hates us all so equally."

Gwen shrugged, "Ya, you're probably right. Besides, she probably eats her pets anyway."

Cody couldn't help but involuntarily snort, disrupting the class in the process. Mrs. A, who was facing the board at the time of the snort, couldn't tell who had made the noise, and went on teaching her lesson.

"Are you trying to get my new golden child status revoked immediately after I got it?" Cody panned.

Gwen grinned, "What can I say, I'm the jealous type."

Suddenly, Sierra chimed in by quickly, but silently, spinning around in her seat, "How dare you try to get my Cody in trouble!"

Cody rolled his eyes. This was just typical Sierra, misinterpreting anything said that was related to Cody as a hostile threat. Cody hated that Sierra didn't let him just interact on his own, but a part of him did appreciate that she cared so much, no matter how creepy her obsession could be.

"Chill Sierra, I was just joking."

"Hmph!" Sierra said before spinning back around.

Gwen stared at Cody and whispered even more quietly than before, "I don't see how you're friends with that chick."

Cody often wondered that himself. Sierra had always had a huge crush on Cody, and at first that affection had driven Cody away, but out of mere exposure to her, Cody began to grow a soft spot for her. Not a romantic soft spot, but a soft spot nonetheless. He knew what it was like to be hopelessly in love with a girl without those feelings being reciprocated, and he also knew how much it meant to him when that girl remained friends with him despite rejecting him. In fact he was speaking to that girl right now, and he wanted to do the same thing for Sierra, that Gwen had done for him. He was also sort of hoping that the same thing that had happened to him would happen to Sierra as well, where her feelings for him would gradually deteriorate as she began to value his friendship more. At least, that was what had happened with him and Gwen, and honestly things were a lot better now because of it.

Cody wasn't sure how to respond to Gwen's comment so he just let it go. The rest of the period was a drag, as Mrs. A went on to lecture endlessly about parallel and series circuits. Gwen and Cody had joked around for a majority of the class and by the end of the period they had bashed Mrs. A more than they had even heard her talk. Gwen and Cody walked out of class together and into the hallway. Almost instinctively Cody asked, "What class do you have?"

Gwen looked at him incredulously, "Seriously? You ask me this question every day and you still can't remember?"

Cody had already known the answer but had asked out of sheer habit. Knowing the response, he scratched the back of his head and said grinning, "English. Sorry, guess I'm just stuck in my ways."

A new voice sounded from behind them, "You'll have to excuse my dear friend here. The memory that should be reserved for useful information like class schedules is taken up by useless and irrelevant trivia."

Gwen grinned, "Hilariously sarcastic as always Noah."

Noah grinned, "I'm glad you appreciate my humor. But seriously can you name anyone else who knows all one hundred and fifty one original Pokémon in order?"

"Not someone who would willingly admit it." Gwen quipped back.

"Touché." Noah retorted before turning to Cody and saying, "Ready for gym?"

Cody nodded, as he was too flustered by the Pokémon comment to say anything. He waved goodbye to Gwen and the duo left to their next class. Once they got to the locker room Cody quickly changed and met the rest of his group outside. Assembled in front of him were some of his best friends, excluding a few that didn't have PE this period. They were sitting on the pavement in a sort of half circle formation. To his left was Harold who was blabbering on about some temporal paradox associated with some movie and to his right was Beth who was listening to Harold's nonsense with an actual expression of interest. She was about the only person in the world who could listen to what Harold had to say without either wanting to punch him or ignore him.

Their nerd team of four had been completed, and now there was nothing left to do except wait till class started. As they passed the time making small talk, Cody noticed some of the other kids coming out of the locker rooms. It was embarrassing, but Cody didn't know half the kids in his own class and it was already the middle of the year. It made for really awkward introductions when Cody got paired up with some random kid he didn't know. Soon enough, practically the whole class was out waiting for the coach to arrive. About ten minutes after the bell had actually rang Mr. Skinner arrived, leading Cody, Noah, Beth, and Harold to leave their spot so that they could go meet their coach and assemble into their predetermined lines. Once everyone was in an orderly fashion, Mr. Skinner began to speak, "Alright everyone, we're going to start a new unit today. The name of the game: dodgeball. So everyone meet up in the gym and lineup! We're picking teams!"

The class did as they were told and once they were all inside, they formed one giant line. Mr. Skinner picked who he considered the two most athletic guys in the class (though he claimed he just picked the two names from the exact middle of the list for fairness's sake), Duncan Meyers and Tyler Morris (though Tyler wasn't necessarily the best at sports). As soon as this was decided, they started choosing teams. There were only 30 kids in the class and the coach said they had to be picked in boy-girl order, so naturally Cody figured he'd be picked near the bottom of the pack, along with the rest of his friends. Because of this, he zoned out of the selection process for a while and took a break to talk to Noah. Tyler eventually picked Cody for his team and while he wasn't the last one picked, with Noah, Harold, and two girls still yet to be selected, he could already tell his team was doomed. Of the people Tyler had picked, Cody only recognized a handful, but the ones he did recognize were either unathletic or a little bit dim witted. Noah was the last pick and ended up being put on Cody's team, not that it really mattered. Looking down the line of kids Cody only knew seven of his teammate's names, including himself. There was Tyler (the captain), Lindsay (Tyler's girlfriend), Owen (who was actually a pretty good friend of Cody's and pretty much everyone else), himself, Beth, and Noah. The team against them, on the other hand, was stacked with extremely athletic guys and girls. Obviously there was Duncan (their team captain), Geoff (his second in command), Courtney (Duncan's girlfriend), Bridgette (Geoff's girlfriend), about ten kids that Cody didn't know but could tell would be decent enough at dodgeball, and finally the misfit of the group, Harold.

Noah, who was apparently noticing the same thing, whispered to Cody, "Well this will be pleasant."

Cody gave a weak smile knowing the words were all to true. Together, their team took their side of the basketball court that was being treated as the dodgeball field, while the other team took their side. Before he knew it, the game had started.

With the blow of Mr. Skinner's whistle all the fastest players ran for the center line which held five dodgeballs. Cody's team managed to recover one of the balls, while Duncan's team got the other four. _'Well that's not a good way to start the game,'_ Cody thought. Duncan was the first to attack as he threw a rocket across the court colliding with some poor kid, who then struggled to waddle to the sidelines. With that causality Tyler threw his ball at Duncan, or at least that's where it ended up going. Cody couldn't actually tell where Tyler had been aiming. Regardless, Duncan caught the ball with one hand and as if that wasn't enough for showing off, he grinned at Tyler and winked. Tyler walked dejectedly to the stands, leaving his team down two men. After that rough start Cody and his team did decently enough to keep the game alive; Cody had even managed to get two outs. As the war waged on, Cody eventually found himself and Owen as the last two on his team's side of the field. On the other side was a very confident looking Duncan, Harold (who was miraculously still in based on dodging "skills" alone), Geoff, and Bridgette.

Cody turned to Owen who was right by his side and muttered just loud enough for Owen to hear, "Well we gave it our best shot, Owen."

Owen just smiled and laughed, "Aw man it's not over yet!"

Cody wasn't quite sure how to take that, but before he could think too hard about it a ball came screaming at his face. He barely dodged it by falling to the floor like a limp noodle. Geoff, who had thrown the ball was clearly impressed.

"Whoa little dude! Nice dodge!" he called from across the court, congratulating Cody.

While the ball may have come a little too close for comfort he was happy to notice that now Owen and he had three balls and the other team only had one. The last ball resided in the middle of the gym floor, and no one dared try to pick it up out of fear of getting beaned at point blank range. Cody picked up the ball Geoff had thrown and spoke quietly to Owen, making sure not to take his gaze off of the other team this time, "Alright man this is our best chance. What we should do is—"

Cody was interrupted by Owen who charged like a raging water buffalo to the center of the court. With two dodgeballs in each hand he kamikazed his way to the halfway line that separated the two team's courts, all the while screaming. When he got to the line he chucked both balls simultaneously, hitting both Geoff and Duncan in the process. Unfortunately for Owen, Bridgette threw the only ball their team had right into Owen's gut, though Owen clearly had weighed the risk beforehand and had accepted that he was going to be thrown out. The three new causalities made their way off the basketball court, leaving the three remaining survivors to duke it out. It was Cody versus Bridgette and Harold. He knew for a fact that Harold couldn't throw to save his life, so really it was Cody versus Bridgette and he was not liking his odds at the moment. Bridgette was one of the most athletic girls in school while Cody was just a scrawny weakling. To make matters worse, now Cody only had one ball and Bridgette and Harold had two, while the other two were trapped in the middle. Cody appreciated Owen's sacrifice because Duncan and Geoff would have wiped the floor with him if Owen hadn't gotten them out, and they probably would have done it a lot more mercilessly than Bridgette or Harold could, but he still wished he had the big guy here to take the pressure off of him a bit.

Cody stared down his competitors and they stared right back. Surprisingly the gym was pretty tense considering this was only a PE game that had no ramifications or rewards. Harold was the first one to make a move by throwing a soft floater which Cody deflected. Now that he had two balls he threw one back to Harold which he managed to dodge, but Cody was expecting this. Just as Harold started to move out of the path of the first ball, Cody threw his second ball right where he anticipated Harold was going to end up. There was nowhere for the red haired nerd to go. He tried to catch it but ended up just bobbling it. Cody admired his shot a bit too long though because out of the corner of his eye he could see a red rubber ball heading straight for his face. The last thought that went through Cody's head before he got hit was, '_Crap I forgot about Bridgette._'

The ball had been thrown much harder than Cody was expecting, which didn't help with the pain factor at all. The ball pushed against Cody's nose causing him to fly backwards and hit his head on the hardwood floor. His vision became hazy and he could feel his eyes closing as everything started getting darker. He had the worst migraine he had ever had, and he wasn't sure if it was coming from the inside or the outside of his head. Bridgette was the first one to reach him, rushing over to him yelling, "Oh my God Cody! Are you okay?!"

People began to crowd, and Mr. Skinner made a pathway. He heard someone yell about getting the nurse, but he had no idea who had said it. At that point he was so disoriented that he wouldn't have been able to identify the voice of his own mother. During all the commotion he could feel himself be picked up and then that was when he blacked out.

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><p><strong>So that's the end of this chapter. Please review, all criticism is appreciated. I realize that this chapter didn't really get to the meat of the story, but I promise next chapter will be much more entertaining than this one. This chapter is also smaller than normal, so expect slightly larger chapters than this from now on.<strong>

**Anyway until next time, see you later.**


	2. Meeting Bridgette

**Alright so before chapter 2 starts I would like to thank zorbo678 and linkmeister16 for commenting last chapter and to linkmeister16, I can as well, the real challenge is naming all 719.**

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><p>Cody woke up in bed in the nurse's office, lying down on one of the many beds. His head was still ringing, but not nearly as bad as when he had first got hit. He had no idea how long he had been here, but no one was monitoring him at the moment so he decided to just to lay down in his bed and collect his thoughts. He was able to focus pretty decently so he guessed he probably didn't have a concussion, which also probably also meant he hadn't been unconscious for very long, only just long enough to get him to the nurse's office.<p>

He got up out of his bed and tried to stand up straight. After initially wobbling a bit, Cody was able regain his balance and walk over to the front desk. Once he turned the corner from patient's beds to the front desk he almost ran into someone who was walking the other way.

"Oh sorry!" the female voice exclaimed.

Surprisingly enough Cody recognized the voice and identified it as Bridgette's. Sure enough, he looked up to see the blonde surfer girl standing in front of him. Jokingly, Cody remarked, "Whoa Bridgette if you wanted to knock me out again all you had to do was ask."

Bridgette, who was clearly feeling guilty apologized even more vehemently than before. After about the eighth rapid fire sorry, Cody said, "Relax Bridge, it was just a joke," he then put his hands up to show he meant no harm, "It takes a lot more than an accidental knock on the head to make me mad."

The blonde surfer chick smiled in relief, "I'm sorry Cody, I just feel so bad. I didn't mean to throw it that hard… I just…"

Cody waved his hand as if to show that it was of no significance to him, "Seriously it's okay."

The two stared at each other in silence. Cody began to regret forgiving Bridgette's apologies so quickly, not because he was mad, but just because he didn't want to be trapped in an awkward silence with nothing to say. Seriously, what was he supposed to say to the girl who had just made him go unconscious during PE? Up until this point, the two of them had never talked, making this possibly the strangest first interaction he had ever had. Bridgette clearly wasn't going to leave until she was satisfied that Cody was okay, and Cody wasn't about to tell her to go away. Eventually, after about ten seconds of uncomfortable nothingness, Bridgette finally said, "Well since you're awake… I'm going to get the nurse to check on you."

Bridgette left and came back about twenty seconds later with a nurse. She did a few tests on Cody, like shining a like in his eyes and asking him some basic questions, to make sure he didn't have a concussion. After she was finished with these tests she gave her prognosis, "Well there aren't any signs of a concussion, but you should probably still rest here for a while," then she directed her attention to Bridgette and ordered, "Make sure he doesn't fall asleep."

With that the nurse left the room, putting the two of them in an awkward situation again. Attempting to break the ice, Cody said, "So thanks for staying with me Bridgette. That's really cool of you but you really didn't need to."

Bridgette smiled, "Well I am the one who put you here. I feel like if you have to be here, so should I."

Cody smirked, "Yeah, if I have to miss out on class, you should definitely have to suffer too."

"Hey, I didn't say it was solely for your benefit, did I?"

"So you're saying you planned this all on purpose?"

Bridgette giggled, "I guess you'll never know. All I'm saying is that I really hate going to history class."

"Hey I didn't say I disapprove of you methods, just tell me about them next time."

The two smiled at each other. There was a silence this time, but it was no longer uncomfortable. Now it was like a silence between friends, or at least acquaintances, but they definitely weren't strangers anymore. Bridgette finally said, "So Cody, sorry again about knocking you out and all."

"If you apologize again I'm going to kill you."

"Fair enough, but I do feel extremely bad about it still so let me at least take you out for ice cream or something after school today."

Initially Cody was going to turn her down and say it wasn't necessary, but once Bridgette mentioned ice cream, Cody's sweet tooth took over. He responded a bit too eagerly, "That sounds great!"

Bridgette was visibly pleased by Cody's response as she sat back in her chair and smiled, "Good, then meet me after school in the parking lot. You'll know which car is mine."

After their plans were set, the continued talking for a good fifteen minutes when the nurse said that they had to get back to class. Before they left Cody changed out of his gym uniform and into his normal outfit, which someone had retrieved for him, and Bridgette did the same. The nurse told Cody that if he had any problems to come back immediately, but he had no plans of returning again. Together, Bridgette and Cody walked out of the nurse's office and towards the history classrooms. They both had the same history period, so they continued their conversation into the hallway as they walked to their room. PE was already almost over when Cody got hit, and apparently he had been unconscious for about twenty minutes. Add on to that another twenty or so for the time they had waited in the nurse's office, and Cody figured they had successfully wasted almost three quarters of third period. Once they arrived at their destination, Cody had a moment of brilliance. He stopped abruptly before opening the door and turned to Bridgette, "I have an idea."

Bridgette tilted her head ever so slightly, "Yeah?"

"Since we've gotten out of most of this period already there's really no point to doing any of the work, right? We would already be so far behind there isn't a point today is there?"

Bridgette grinned and rolled her eyes, humoring Cody's slothlike logic but not taking it too seriously. Cody continued, "So what if we walk in there and I play up the head injury thing a bit. You pretend that you're watching over me and neither of us will have to do any work!"

"I like the way you think Mr. Anderson."

With their plan in place, now all that was left was execution. They had to make it look convincing enough that their history teacher would believe them, but not so overdone that it seemed acted out. Finding the compromise was a lot harder than it might have seemed though. Cody threw his arm around Bridgette's neck as if to use her as a stilt. At first it seemed like that was overdoing it because this provided very little relief in actuality, especially for a head injury, but after Cody decided to add a few medium level moans and groans he and Bridgette were convinced they would be able to help sell the performance.

"Lights, camera..." Cody said putting on a sickly face to help with their ruse.

Bridgette scoffed, "How cheesy can you get?"

Cody grinned, "Action."

Bridgette opened the door to reveal the classroom in the middle of a lecture. Their teacher, Mr. Barkus, turned his attention from his slide on the PowerPoint to the newly opened door.

"Bridgette! Cody! How nice of you to join us!" he said enthusiastically. Despite the seemingly sarcastic and stereotypical words, Mr. Barkus truly did mean what he said. Unlike many other teachers, Mr. Barkus loved his job and was very eager to teach his students. For that reason he was either his student's favorite or least favorite teacher. Cody like him a lot, but that didn't mean he necessarily felt like learning what Mr. Barkus was teaching.

Before Bridgette could even utter a word about why they were late, Cody let out a moan that sounded suspiciously like a cartoon ghost from Scooby Doo. Needless to say, Cody was laying it on thick.

Bridgette attempted to speak over Cody's ghastly moan. Raising her voice she said, or at least attempted to say, "Sorry, Cody got hurt in PE. He had—"

Bridgette was interrupted by another large moan. She regained her composure, "He hurt his head on the hardwood. The nurse told me to monitor him in class for a while."

"Oh my!" Mr. Barkus said rather melodramatically, "Cody are you okay?"

Cody outstretched his arm as if to reach for Mr. Barkus before muttering, "Mistah... Barkus… HISTORY!"

Mr. Barkus's face was priceless. Partly horror, and partly uncertainty he ushered Bridgette and Cody to take a seat in the back of the class. Bridgette gingerly helped Cody into his desk and brought up their passes from the nurse's office before taking her seat next to Cody. The lesson continued on as if it hadn't been interrupted at all. Cody continued his delirious act through the whole period, obnoxiously moaning every five minutes or so. Bridgette seemed like she could hardly control her laughter the whole time, which made Cody feel somewhat proud. The period went by relatively quickly, and by the time it ended, it seemed like barely any time had passed at all. Together, they walked out of Mr. Barkus's class and once outside they said their goodbyes until after school that day.

Cody couldn't help but marvel at how quickly his day had changed. Up until gym today, he only had a select group of friends, and of those friends they were all of a similar social circle to begin with meaning they were pretty much destined to meet eventually. And as if that wasn't enough, it had taken awhile for him to earn their friendship anyway. Basically, it was difficult for him to make friends, but with Bridgette they had come from two completely opposite aspects of the social spectrum and only united through sheer coincidence, yet it was as easy talking to her as it was Noah or Gwen.

As he made his way to fourth period he couldn't help but smile. It may have sounded crazy, but he was glad that Bridgette had hit him with that dodgeball not only because he had a new friend, but also for the much more superficial reason of bragging rights. Noah would be so jealous.

Fourth period was a blur, as Cody couldn't focus to save his life. By the time the lunch bell rang, Cody never heard more from his Spanish teacher than, "Good morning class." He made his way out to the lunch room and found his friends in their normal spot in the corner of cafeteria. Cody was only the third to arrive so he put his backpack down next to Beth and went to go get lunch. Harold came with him and together they waited in line, shooting the breeze over some obscure TV documentary Harold had found last night and how the historical inaccuracies were so atrocious it was unbearable to watch.

"All I'm saying is that the first foreigners in North America weren't Leif Erikson and the Vikings, but Asian nomads who made their way into Alaska over the once formed ice bridge and moved down into warmer climates. That documentary crew had it all wrong! If you would have been there Cody you would have been just as upset as I am!" Harold ranted.

Cody really didn't care about what Harold was saying, but he wasn't going to disrespect him by totally ignoring him. That being said, Cody wasn't against messing with the guy. Cody tried to pull off his most sincere face and innocently said, "Gee, I don't know Harold, I always heard Christopher Columbus discovered America."

Knowing that this would set Harold off, Cody braced himself. Harold gave his signature phrase, "Gosh! Cody I am offended! I thought of all people you'd know your history!"

Harold ranted on and on, but Cody just tuned him out. Cody had known Harold for quite a long time and knew what set the guy off. They had been friends for the longest time, but Cody and Harold had never really been the best of friends. It wasn't that he didn't like Harold, it was just that Harold was a bit… irking. Too much of him was never a good thing, but that being said, he was still a good friend, Cody just preferred him in small doses. The two got their lunch and Harold was still making Cody pay for his joke by talking his ear off. They walked back to their seats, Cody getting more homicidal by the moment. In their absence Noah, Sierra, and Ezekiel had appeared rounding out their group. These were Cody's best friends, not that he had very many other friends to choose from. Aside from Gwen (who used to hang out with them but now was with her boyfriend Trent), Cody didn't really talk to anyone else on a daily basis, or even a weekly basis for that matter. That being said, he really did love his friends and would give up the world for any of them.

"I see you didn't wait for me." Noah said glaring at the lunch in Cody's hands.

Cody stared at Noah and nodded his head towards Harold who was still ranting, "Don't worry, karma's already bitten me in the butt."

Noah chuckled, probably knowing Cody's pain, "I'm sure. Seems like your head is feeling better."

"Ya, the nurse—"

"What do you mean Cody's head is feeling better?! Do you mean my Codykins got hurt?!" Sierra butted in.

It took a minute for Sierra to calm down as Cody told the dodgeball story to her and the rest of his friends that weren't there when the incident happened (which was only Ezekiel).

After he was done Sierra spoke clearly, enunciating each syllable of her words clearly and subtly gaining volume, "I will KILL BRIDGETTE!

Cody panicked, knowing Sierra might actually attempt to do so, "No Sierra it's all fine! I talked to Bridgette. It was a total accident. We're friends now."

Noah scoffed, "Cody, being hit by a dodgeball doesn't count as being hit on. You've never talked to the girl before today. How could you be friends already?"

Harold defended him, "Actually Noah, a recently published developmental psychology article says that on average it takes only seven minutes to develop a friendship."

"Whatever," Noah replied with his constant pessimism, "It's not like she'll ever talk to him again anyway."

"That is where you are wrong my friend," Cody said regaining his confidence, "Because we are meeting up again tonight."

The look on Noah's face was priceless. For once, the know-it-all had nothing to say. Ezekiel on the other hand, did, "Yo homeboy got skillz!"

While Ezekiel might have been enthusiastic, Sierra looked on the verge of tears, "Why must you do this to me Cody? I would never hurt you like she does… Don't go back to that… to that Cody-beater!"

Cody-beater? Sierra made it sound like what Bridgette did was on purpose. Cody needed to set things straight, but before he could Noah snapped out of his temporary shock and latched onto the Cody-beater bandwagon with all the sarcasm he could muster, "Oh Cody, we wouldn't want you going back to mean old Bridgette!"

Harold, who usually used his useless factoids for good, decided to turn on Cody as well, "Cody is showing signs of Stockholm syndrome in which the afflicted feel the need to stay with their abuser."

"Cody you can't turn back into an abusive relationship!" Beth exclaimed. Cody could see this was quickly becoming more than just a joke, and soon enough he would be forced to abandon his plans with Bridgette. He needed to stop that before it happened.

Cody called attention to himself, "Very funny guys, but trust me, I'm fine. Sierra, Bridgette is not a Cody-beater, so don't worry. We are only going out for ice cream as a way to pay me back. Now I need you to promise you won't curse Bridgette to a thousand years of damnation behind my back. Okay?"

Sierra reluctantly agreed, and with that came the end of the Cody-beater teasing. Well, almost the end. Everyone had stopped but Noah who would occasionally make offhand references to Cody's new friend, or "friend" as he called it putting quotes around the word. Apparently his best friend just couldn't accept that something good involving a girl had happened to Cody for a change.

The rest of lunch, and the rest of the day for that matter, seemed like just a giant waste of time. Cody couldn't wait till school ended, not just because of his meet up with Bridgette, but also because he was done with it all today. Somehow, this day seemed longer than any other, and he really just wanted a break from all the action.

Cody made his way out to the parking lot and found his car. He owned probably the crappiest car in the history of cars, a 1987 Yugo, and he was proud of it. The bright red paint job didn't help it seem any cooler either, but sadly it was the best he could afford under 200,000 miles. When Cody had bought the car the salesman had persuaded him that "its crappy look was what made the car such a ladies magnet" and that "it would become retro in a couple years". Sadly, that had not yet happened. Cody peered out into the rest of the parking lot, looking for Bridgette's car. She had told him to meet her in the parking lot, but he had no idea what kind of car she drove, where it would be, or even what color it was, so it was safe to say that he probably wouldn't be going anywhere soon. Cody slumped up against his car, waiting for the time to pass, slowly counting the minutes. He waited for what seemed an endless amount of time, though in reality it was probably only ten minutes. Finally after about half the parking lot had cleared out a large, sky blue colored Jeep pulled up next to him.

"Oh no." Cody mumbled, realizing that this was probably Bridgette's car. He looked through the windows and sure enough it was Bridgette. The surfer girl rolled down her window and motioned for Cody to get into the passenger's seat, to which Cody complied, albeit slowly. He sat down on the leather seat and glared at Bridgette, who was wearing a pair of silver reflective aviator sunglasses that, frankly, looked ridiculous on her. The exchanged pleasantries while Cody clicked his seat belt on and the two sped off to go get some ice cream.

They decided on quality over convenience. Instead of going to the Marble Slab only a couple of blocks away, they decided to go to The Ice Cream Parlor (yes, that was its actual name) which was all the way across town. Bridgette figured if she was going to beg for Cody's forgiveness, she couldn't half-ass the effort, and Cody wasn't about to argue. The car ride took about 15 minutes, which, by car, was actually quite the substantial amount of time to travel for ice cream. When they finally got to The Ice Cream Parlor Cody couldn't help but feel like a little kid next to Bridgette. He was used to looking younger than his actual age, but standing next to Bridgette he felt smaller than he ever had. He had never cared about his height when he was around his friends because in that scenario it didn't matter what people thought, but with a girl… it was a little embarrassing looking like a kid Bridgette was babysitting. It probably didn't help that she was taking Cody out for ice cream either.

The two walked inside and sat down at the bar and waited for the bartender to make his way over. The Ice Cream Parlor was decorated like a vintage ice cream bar from the 60s with a jukebox in the corner and everything. No one besides them was there, which Cody found kind of sad. When this place was busy is when it was the most fun. A teenage bartender (probably around their age) wearing the full uniform of white slacks, a white dress shirt, red suspenders, and one of those In&Out hats, finally came out from the back of the shop and made his way over to where Cody and Bridgette were sitting.

"Can I take your order?" the teenage waiter asked nonchalantly. Cody frowned, the employees here were supposed to overly enthusiastic, but this guy wasn't having any of that. He probably felt like he had sacrificed enough of dignity wearing the dorky uniform.

Bridgette ordered a double scoop of vanilla ice cream while Cody ordered a double chocolate fudge sundae. The waiter left to go make their orders.

With nothing happening around them, there was a silence for a second. Bridgette broke it by informing Cody, "You know, I was actually going to apply for a job here this summer."

Cody opened his mouth and put up one finger, as if he had some comment to make about this surprising bit of trivia, but had nothing to respond with, so he just left it agape. Bridgette laughed at Cody's response, "Ya, I know right. Can't you imagine me in that get up."

This time Cody had something to say, "I would seriously reconsider your options if I were you. That outfit… Ya, just don't."

"Why, don't you think I would look sexy?" Bridgette teased, gesturing with her hands down her body.

It was fair to say that Cody was more than a little bit caught off guard by this remark as his entire face lit up red. Bridgette could apparently tell because she giggled at his discomfort causing Cody to blush once again.. He regained his composure as best he could after a display that bad, "Ya, if by sexy you mean like a total dork," Cody considered what he had said, "So ya pretty much perfect for me!"

Unlike Cody, Bridgette was unphased by Cody's remark, "I know, I know, but I really need the money… So, The Ice Cream Parlor, prepare for your next employee, Bridgette Young. And Bridgette Young, prepare to be made fun of by all your friends this summer."

"You know I wouldn't so that kind of stuff so loud. The waiter-dude might spit in your food."

"Who? Alejandro? He wouldn't do that. He's so nice. I talked to him about getting a job here and he said he'd put in a good word. And trust me, he knows how bad the uniforms are."

Cody didn't know the guy, so he took Bridgette's word for it. Just then, Alejandro brought out the two ice creams in old, vintage glass bowls and served them to their respective owners. He then went into the back room, leaving the two alone again.

Cody sat there looking down at the deliciousness before him and before Bridgette could say anything Cody was digging in. Cody heard Bridgette give a little chuckle, probably in disbelief of Cody's love for ice cream, and pretty much any sweets in general.

"So Cody," Bridgette said taking a break from her vanilla ice cream, "Why haven't we talked before today."

To absorbed in his ice cream and not really thinking Cody responded, "Cause you didn't hit me with a dodgeball before today."

Bridgette punched his arm, "No seriously."

"Hmmm…" Cody pondered taking the question much more seriously, "Just different social circles I guess. Different lives that didn't cross till now."

"Yeah… I guess so…. I guess it was just a fluke. A good fluke though."

"Naw," Cody rejected, "I don't believe in flukes. Everything happens for a reason. Whatever that reason was, I think we were meant to meet Bridgette."

"Ya?" Bridgette questioned, "And what is that reason?"

"Who knows?" Cody concluded shrugging his shoulders.

Bridgette seemed like she was wishing for more from Cody's response. Cody didn't know what more to add. It was the most likely truth. Bridgette came from the popular kids group and Cody did not. They had an average amount of classes together, but never really noticed each other, or at least Cody hadn't noticed Bridgette. Well, that wasn't entirely true, because Cody noticed all the girls in his class and spent a large portion of his time in class gawking at them, but he had never spent any more time on Bridgette than he had the other girls.

Not really sure what to say Cody added cheerily, "But now that we know each other, it doesn't matter!"

Bridgette smiled, "Ya. I want you to know that of the short amount of time we have known each other it has truly been fun and I'm not just hanging out with you because I feel bad about dodgeball today. We definitely need to do this again."

Cody knew the words were sincere, but couldn't help shake the feeling that part of what Bridgette said was untrue. He believed her when she said that she wasn't doing this because she had to, as far as he could tell they were both having a great time, but he found it hard to believe that they would ever hang out like this again. It wasn't that Bridgette didn't mean what she said, because he wholeheartedly believed that what she was being completely honest, but what were the chances that Cody would be the first one she would call when she had time to hang out. Probably the same as her pelting him with a dodgeball again. And Cody sure wasn't going to be the one to call up Bridgette. She had a boyfriend, and Cody didn't want to give Geoff the wrong idea. Cody may be a pervert but he would never intentionally steal someone's girlfriend! Cody had never had a girlfriend, so he could imagine the anguish associated with losing one to another guy.

Cody nodded to Bridgette. He knew better than to verbally bring up these objections. He didn't want to ruin their good time by bringing up something awkward like that.

"I'm glad you agree," Bridgette said taking out her phone handing it to Cody, "Put your number in. I'll text you later to give you mine."

Cody, a little bit taken aback by the lack of subtleness, did as he was told. The two talked for a bit longer and finished up their ice cream, getting their bill which was a whooping six dollars. Cody tried to pay for his own part, but Bridgette wasn't going to hear it, as she paid the full total, even giving Alejandro a tip he probably didn't deserve.

The two left The Ice Cream Parlor and Bridgette gave Cody a ride back to his car at school. School had gotten out at three o'clock and now it was four fifteen. Cody was amazed at how long there trip had been (though half the time was just driving). He hopped out of Bridgette's sky blue Jeep, kind of relieved to no longer be associated with that thing, and hopped into his own Yugo, instantly losing the coolness he had just re-earned. Bridgette and he said their goodbyes and Cody made his way back home, with a smile plastered upon his face. Today had been a good day.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! Please review and I'll update again soon, so until next, see you later.<strong>


	3. The Fair!

Cody woke up early Saturday morning, as was the usual for him. He was always the first one up in his house, though it wasn't like he had much competition. Cody's baby brother slept all day and all night and his little brother Toby, who was thirteen, also slept all afternoon on the weekends. The only member of their family left was his father, who worked the graveyard shift at security officer job, so that he could take care of baby Joey during the day, while Cody and Toby were at school. After Cody and Toby got home from school they took care of the baby while their father would sleep till eight PM which is when Cody would wake him up so he could go to work. He would work till he got home at seven in the morning then go back to sleep till it was time for Cody and Toby to go to school or in the special case of weekends, till they had something else they needed to do. Sadly, Cody's mother had died of a heart problem only a couple weeks after Joey was born, leaving their whole family in turmoil. It had been a problem for her for years, so it was more or less prepared for, but it still hurt nonetheless. That had been nearly eight months ago now, and finally they seemed to have adjusted, though it was still a sensitive subject for a lot of reasons. Cody had grown up a lot in these last few months, gaining a lot more independence and responsibility than he would like to have. But nevertheless, that was how it was and he wouldn't be able to do anything to change it, no matter how much he wanted to.

Cody made his way out of his bedroom and went down the hall towards the kitchen to make breakfast for the family. It was seven thirty, so no one would be up for hours so really it was just breakfast for himself and food for his family later. He quietly checked on his baby brother on his way down the hall, but he was still sleeping, so he continued on his way. Once in the kitchen, he decided to make bacon and eggs, the staple of the Anderson family, and got the necessary ingredients. Twenty minutes later he had enough food to feed three people, though at the current moment he only needed enough for one. He took his serving and placed the rest in the refrigerator. His brother and dad knew the drill and would be able to eat later. He took his food into his room and sat it down at his work table (where he took on miscellaneous tech related projects), making a place for it around all the gears and gadgets that made the place feel like home.

He powered up his laptop and went to . Scrolling through the various TV shows he was watching, none of them felt right at the moment. Breaking Bad? It's too early for all that right now. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? No. Even though he promised Zeke he would watch it, he just couldn't bring himself to start the thing. Scrubs? Yeah, that one sounded good right now. Nothing better than a good comedy in the morning.

About halfway through an episode of Zack Braff shenanigans he pulled out his phone to see the time. Though he could have checked on his laptop, it was just a force of habit. It revealed that it was eight o'clock precisely, and also showed Cody that he had three new messages from two different people. The first one was from Noah which simply read, "Gwen, Trent, Owen, Izzy, Harold, and I going to the fair. You in?"

Cody responded in the affirmative and moved on to his next to messages which were from the same person- Bridgette. Great, that was just what he needed. For the past couple of days, since Bridgette gave him her number on Wednesday, she had texted Cody a few times. Initially, Cody was pleased by this, but after a while he started to get worried that Bridgette had the wrong idea about their friendship. He didn't want to give Geoff any misgivings about him, and certainly didn't want Bridgette to think that he was into her. Despite this, Cody couldn't help himself from getting into long, convoluted conversations with the girl. She was unlike any girl he had ever met and most remarkably, she liked talking to Cody. This alone was enough to get Cody to talk to any girl, but Bridgette's conversations were so much interesting than what he was used to. So far they had talked about surfing, history homework, the benefits of getting hit in the head by a dodgeball, a list of some of their favorite things, Cody's baby brother Joey, and their career goals. Clearly, Cody could talk about pretty much anything with this girl and it would undoubtedly turn into a fascinating conversation. Geoff was a lucky guy.

Cody, still having yet to check what those messages form Bridgette said, got a new message from Noah which told him that he was coming by to pick him up at eight thirty. Having roughly thirty minutes till the designated time, Cody paused the episode he was only half watching and left to go take a shower. He was ready with five minutes to spare so he went into his younger brother's room and punched him awake, telling him that he was in charge of Joey. Toby grumbled and turned over, but he seemed to understand what Cody told him. Satisfied, Cody grabbed his phone and waited outside for Noah. Once outside, he turned on his phone again while sitting on a rock in his front yard. The first thing to pop up was the messages from Bridgette, but before he got a chance to read it Noah's car appeared in front of his house.

He came when he said he would with Harold already in the back seat, so together the trio drove off to the fairgrounds where the fair was located. The fairgrounds were an interesting part of town. It wasn't a bad area of town per say, but it definitely wasn't in the optimum place for a pale, short, geeky, white kid from the suburbs, but as long as Cody was with his friends he would probably be alright. On the ride over, the three occupants of Noah's car got into a heated argument over what was the best gaming console. In fact, it was such a hotly debated topic, it lasted the whole car ride over, into and through the parking lot, and to the ticket office where they were forced to table the discussion to purchase their tickets (though Harold tried to settle it by asking the admissions attendant before Cody and Noah stopped him from further holding up the line).

Immediately after entering the park they found Gwen and Trent sitting on a nearby bench. They approached the couple, who greeted them coolly. This was the norm for Trent though because Cody didn't think he had ever had an awkward moment in his life. He was the embodiment of coolness. There really was no other way to describe it. Cody had known Trent for a long time, but for a long time he had never spoke to the guy. But since he and Gwen had gotten together Cody and Trent had become good friends. It was actually Cody who helped Trent know that Gwen liked him, though Gwen didn't know that till after the fact.

"Owen and Izzy here yet?" Noah asked breaking Cody's train of thought.

"Nah, haven't seen them yet." Trent said smiling.

"Well if we're going to be sitting here waiting would you mind settling an argument for us?" Harold started. Cody and Noah groaned, knowing where this discussion was headed, but nevertheless Harold asked the question, "What is the best gaming system? The Super Nintendo, the Gamecube, or the PS4?"

Gwen waved off the question, claiming she knew nothing about gaming. Cody knew this wasn't entirely true because he was one of the few people to know that Gwen actually had a Gameboy Color under her pillow from when she was little. He decided not to say anything about it though, because then he might miss out on the real juicy secrets. Plus, she obviously didn't want it to be said for some reason, though Cody couldn't possibly imagine why. The Gameboy Color was awesome! Nevertheless, Cody wasn't one for throwing his friends under the bus.

Trent on the other hand seemed to seriously contemplate the question. Finally he decided on his answer, "I gotta say none of the above. I choose the original Nintendo. Just like music, the older the music the better. But if I have to choose between those three… I think the PS4. You can't play Guitar Hero on the SNES or Gamecube."

Noah and Cody groaned again, accepting their defeat, while Harold, who had won the argument, couldn't take his victory.

Instead he felt the need to argue with Trent to prove that the Nintendo was far less superior, "What?! The Playstation 4 has far superior graphics and the quality of games are much better developed. Guitar Hero can't be your only reason for picking the PS4!"

"Dude it's not all about that though, it's about seeing where games get their roots from. The nostalgia."

Harold continued to argue with Trent until finally Trent said, "Fine Harold you've convinced me. I now firmly believe that the Gamecube is better than the PS4."

"What?! Gosh! That's not what I meant!"

"Sorry Harold, my mind is decided all thanks to you." Trent continued to antagonize.

Suddenly, Gwen felt like chiming in, "Harold, thank you. Your superior logic has convinced me as well."

Even Noah, who was originally advocating for the Super Nintendo switched sides just to annoy Harold, "Dude even I'm switching sides on this one. Viva la Gamecube."

Cody, feeling triumphant, though it was only a pseudo-victory, raised his hands up in celebration, "Thank you Sir Harold for proving my point. Never argue with the Codemeister!"

Gwen groaned. She always hated that nickname that Cody had given himself, "Nevermind, I'm switching again to team Noah and whatever his console was."

Everyone laughed, and within a couple minutes, Owen and Izzy had each arrived, though at separate times. It was well known by everyone at school that the two were a couple, but they didn't want anyone to treat them like they were, so whenever they came places, they would drive separate cars. They were so extreme in acting like they weren't a couple that sometimes Cody wasn't sure if he'd ever know when, or if, they broke up.

Owen had arrived first, so when Izzy appeared he greeted her with a curtsey. Not a wave like a normal person, or even a bow like a man would do from whatever chivalrous period of history he was attempting to act out, a woman's curtsey. Owen smiled at her and said, "Why Izzy! You look stunning. Did you just get here?"

"Why yes I did Owen. How nice of you to ask."

Noah snorted, "The art of subtlety is lost on you two. This façade is worse than when Cody tried to be a 'lady's man'."

Everyone laughed, even Cody. Those days in Cody's life were long gone and though he was embarrassed by his behavior back then, he did not regret it at all. After a few minutes of discussion the group of seven decided that they would hit up the scariest attraction in the park- The Fright Walk. There wasn't much to the place other than the fact it was a misty hall of mirrors with the occasional pop-up figure trying to scare you, coupled with a scary ambiance soundtrack playing in the background.

Only three could go in at a time so they decided that the first group would consist of Harold, Cody, and Noah, followed by Gwen and Trent and finally Owen and Izzy. Cody and his pals began their trek through The Fright Walk with relative ease. It was all going rather smoothly till the first surprise popped up ten feet in when a gargoyle lit up its eyes and outstretched its arms. Cody jumped but was not too terrified of the thing. The same could not be said for Harold who promptly pushed Cody to the ground and screamed a girlish scream. Since they were only ten feet away from the entrance, Cody was certain his friends on the outside had heard that, he just hoped they recognized it was Harold, not him, who had uttered such a noise. When he listened, he swore he could hear laughter, but he couldn't be certain. The rest of the maze was actually quite scary, though he could never appreciate the special effects to their fullest because Harold kept pushing his back or jabbing his spleen every two seconds. By the time they emerged the other side Cody felt he had gotten his money's worth. Gwen and Trent emerged next, one chuckling and the other looking totally unamused.

Gwen sat down on a bench next to where Cody was standing, put her elbows on her knees, held up her head with her hands, and scowled. Finally she said, "What a rip…"

Trent continued chuckling, "Aw c'mon Gwen. It was decent."

As if on cue Owen came screaming out of the exit followed closely by Izzy who was skipping and yelling enthusiastically. Owen, who was panting, managed to spurt out, "That… was… terrifying…"

Izzy skipped up to the group and jumped onto Owen's back, which he probably did not appreciate given his current condition of physical exhaustion, though he didn't complain, "Big O ran into three mirrors on his way out!"

"The ghosts weren't my real enemy. I was," Owen stated trying to pass this off as sage wisdom.

Everyone burst out laughing, except Owen who had apparently been serious.

The group decided to roam the park looking for more booths, games, and rides and stopping at whatever suited their fancy. Some of the highlights included Noah throwing up at the Spin Wheel, Izzy trying to throw a coup on the pirate ship that flips people upside down, and Cody getting stuck at the top of the Spider's net (which is a giant vertical tower where each floor is made of thick elastic bands where contestants race to the top).

It was around noon when they decided to stop for pizza, Cody's favorite food. Noah, Owen, Harold, and Izzy went to order the food while Trent, Cody, and Gwen reserved a table big enough for all seven of them. After taking their seats Gwen and Trent started to talk about something and Cody drifted off into his own thoughts. They had spent nearly three hours here and it had been a blast. He shifted his gaze out to the giant spinning chair ride. They had yet to ride it, but he was sure they would get to it eventually. He watched the people spin around and around dangling from nothing but two chains. He tried to fix his eyes on just one person a keep track of them the whole way around. Soon enough he got dizzier than the people on the ride. Nonetheless, he tried again. He focused on a girl around his age who wore her blonde hair in a ponytail. She sported a blue sweatshirt and was holding hands with a guy in the next seat over. Cody was ashamed to admit that it took him a little longer than it should have to recognize that these two strangers were really Bridgette and Geoff (who actually was pretty much a stranger).

Cody excused himself from Trent and Gwen's company and went to go flag down the couple. Before he knew it he was jumping up and down, waving his arms trying to get their attention. After about a minute, Cody rethought what he was doing. He was trying to get the attention of his newest friend, whom he was trying to avoid getting too close to respect Geoff and Bridgette's relationship, while they were clearly on a date. He tried to scamper off and avoid detection before it was too late, but at the last moment, Bridgette noticed him. She smiled and waved happily to Cody. She tried telling Cody something with her hand, but since she just kept spinning in circles the message was lost on Cody, but he assumed it was probably something along the lines of 'wait down there for me'.

Cody, now that he had been seen, had no other choice but to oblige or risk being seen as unfriendly. The ride started slowing down and as soon as it had come to a complete halt Bridgette made a beeline for the gate, dragging Geoff, who was still holding her hand, along with her. The couple greeted him with a hug from Bridgette and a fist bump from Geoff.

"Cody why didn't you answer my text this morning?"

"Not answering texts bro?" Geoff scolded, "Tsk, tsk. Major no, no bro."

Cody found it odd that Geoff didn't seem to show any curiosity about why Bridgette was messaging him, much less advocate that he text Bridgette back. Geoff must really not consider him a threat at all.

Cody laughed uncomfortably, "Ya, well my friends and I came and—"

Geoff, still smiling, interrupted him, "Oh hey, I've been meaning to ask. How's the head?"

Cody was a little taken aback about how simply Geoff had interrupted him but quickly forgave the party animal when he saw that Geoff didn't even realize his rude error. Cody shrugged, "It's same as ever I guess."

"Cool. Guess it's a good thing you dodged the ball I threw or else it would have done some real damage."

Cody glanced to Bridgette to see if she seemed a little insulted by this remark. She seemed to a little hurt, but she was clearly not going to say anything. Cody that it was a little offensive so he tried to play off the remark coolly, giving Geoff a chance to redeem himself in both his and Bridgette's eyes, "I don't know man. Bridgette's throw knocked me out pretty well."

Geoff compromised, "Ya, well it's good that we didn't find out."

To that Cody agreed, although half-heartedly. Geoff was good natured enough but from the two minutes he had spent conversing with him, Cody could already tell that Geoff had a habit of not exactly saying things the right way. With this, Geoff decided he was going to go get a couple slices of pizza for Bridgette and himself, leaving Cody alone with Bridgette.

"So?" Bridgette asked, expecting an answer to something.

"So…" Cody continued not sure of what he was answering.

"Why didn't you respond to my message this morning?"

"Oh funny story about that. I saw your text when I woke up but I read Noah's first and he told me to be ready by a certain time and I just barely made it. I was just about to look at it when he pulled up, but I guess I forgot. What'd it say?"

"Well, I needed some advice…" Bridgette said wistfully, "But I guess it doesn't really matter now."

Cody wasn't quite sure how to respond to something so vague and ominous. Luckily he didn't have to. Geoff called from a good thirty feet away at Cody's table, "Bridge! Codemeister! Let's have some lunch!"

Cody could hear Noah groan, "Oh god! Did Cody get Geoff to start calling him that too!"

Cody and Bridgette looked at each other and began walking over to their table full of friends.

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><p><strong>So yeah... this chapter turned out a lot shorter than I expected it to be. I'm sorry if it felt too short, but I can assure you the next chapter will be bigger.<strong>

**Thank you for everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows this story, I truly appreciate it. Until next time, see you later.**


	4. Secrets Revealed

Cody was not looking forward to this for a number of reasons. The first being the obvious- that he didn't want to complicate Geoff and Bridgette's relationship. That being said, he could see Geoff wasn't particularly concerned about Cody challenging him for Bridgette's affections. Cody considered taking a page out of Geoff's book and not sweat the impossible. Bridgette may have been nice to him, but that alone did not mean that she had a crush on him. He pushed the matter out of his mind for the moment as he did not want to be interrogated about his thoughts should anyone ask him.

The second reason for his begrudgingness was that he didn't want to have to sit through an entire awkward lunch. Geoff and Bridgette were far from antisocial, but his group of friends were not always the easiest to get along with. Besides for Owen and Trent, no one at that table could be considered "popular". Every one of them had some quality that would drive Geoff and Bridgette away, or at the least make them feel increasingly uncomfortable. Izzy was just plain crazy, Noah's constant sarcasm was so thick you couldn't cut through it with a chainsaw, Harold was… Harold ('nuff said), and Gwen wasn't one for small talk with those she deemed too superficial to talk to.

Despite Cody's fears, he kept walking, mostly to keep up the appearance that he wasn't worried about this at all. In actuality, if there were no ramifications, Cody would just turn around and avoid the upcoming conversation altogether. They arrived at the long camp style table that looked like it seat around twelve people, which left plenty of room for all nine of the teens. Bridgette sat right next to Geoff who was seated next to Owen who had taken up two seats at the far end of the table. Seated across from Owen was Izzy and Noah. Cody decided to sit next to Noah and across from Bridgette.

"So guys, what's up!" Geoff said attempting to break the ice.

Trent responded first, "Nothing much, how bout you?"

"Nada on my side bro. Me and Bridge here—"

"Bridgette and I." Noah corrected.

Geoff had either not heard the bookworm, or simply did not care because he continued his explanation, "came to the fair this morning hoping to see some friends, but they ended up being no shows."

"Aw that sucks! But now you got us!" Owen chimed in.

"All thanks to Cody," Gwen said smirking, "Who has yet to introduce us yet."

Cody nervousness showed as he stumbled at his cue, "Oh, I didn't realize… Okay so everyone this is Bridgette and Geoff, as I'm sure you already knew and Bridgette and Geoff these are my friends," he began to point to each one as he named them off, "Owen, Izzy, Noah, Gwen, Trent, and Harold." He then added, "I'm guessing you all knew each other's names, this just eliminates in potential awkward situations later."

Cody relinquished the floor, but much to his dismay no one took it upon themselves to start a new discussion. Just then the pickup window rang a bell and shouted, "Order thirty-two your food is ready!"

Owen rejoiced, "Thank holy mother of god! Our food is ready!"

Cody quickly jumped at his opportunity to get out of this dead-end conversation, or lack thereof, by volunteering to get the food. He took the receipt to redeem their food and before anyone could object he was gone. When he returned with five boxes of pizza stacked in his arms almost eclipsing his head he was pleasantly surprised to hear that discussion had been sparked in his absence.

In fact there were two separate conversations going on: one between Noah, Bridgette, Trent, and Gwen on the left side of the table and the other between Harold, Owen, Geoff, and Izzy on the other. Coincidentally enough, Cody's seat was in the middle of both groups meaning he could pick which one he wanted to be a part of. He announced the arrival of the pizza and set them down. After everyone had taken their fair share of the pie, they returned to their previous discussions. Cody decided to listen in on the group to his left first: Gwen, Trent, Bridgette, and Noah.

"All I'm saying is that it's a great premise."

"And I'll I'm saying is that it's a totally implausible premise," Noah quipped back.

Despite the fighting words, Bridgette seemed in good spirits, "Well that is where we disagree."

"Bridgette, the school will never have a surfing team. We live like an hour away from the ocean."

Trent, who had been too busy stuffing pizza in his mouth, decided to chime in on the debate, "You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare."

Bridgette and Gwen looked to Trent, incredulous at the complexity of his comment. Noah on the other hand was unimpressed, "I'm fairly certain that's a Georgia O'Keefe quote."

Cody wondered, "Isn't that the artist who painted lady parts in flowers?"

Noah tapped his nose with his index finger, indicating through the old charades sign that Cody was correct. Cody did a subtle fist pump, celebrating his trivia knowledge.

This did not take away from how "deep" the girls had considered the saying to be.

"Whatever." Noah concluded, "I'm just glad to be done with such a ridiculous debate."

This regained Bridgette's attention and as she restarted her argument with Noah, Cody turned his attention to his other group of friends to his right.

"Gosh! Geoff I didn't know you felt that way!" Harold said, clearly taken aback.

"I'm sorry man that's just how I feel," Geoff responded rather defensively, "That's what my dad taught me and what his dad taught him."

"But dude, how can you still think that way." Owen queried.

"Izzy can't believe it!" she said referring to herself in the third person.

"Hey I'm entitled to do what I want!" Geoff said clearly not changing his opinion on whatever subject they had been debating. With that final conclusion Geoff took a ketchup bottle sitting on the table and squirted it all over his pizza. Everyone shuddered, including Cody. Ketchup on pizza? Now that was just gross.

It seemed that this atrocity effected Owen the most, "No! No! The horror! Geoff how could you!"

"Calm down man," Harold said trying to console the big oaf who was sobbing, "Everything will be all right."

After a couple seconds, all four of them broke character and joined in a group laugh.

Evidently this had been their discussion point from earlier and they were just playing their parts super dramatically. Cody was quite pleased by this. So far it seemed that the two groups had become fast friends, much to Cody's pleasure. For the next fifteen minutes conversations shifted, phone numbers were exchanged, and all nine teens seemed to get along just fine. Even Noah and Gwen, ever the cynics, couldn't help but be pulled towards the infectious cheeriness of Bridgette and Geoff. It had all turned out just fine, but just as Cody started to relax, Geoff and Bridgette began to act odd.

Trent started a conversation between all nine of the teens, "So guys, where do you see yourself in five years?"

Gwen groaned at the question, "Well obviously you want to be a guidance counselor."

"Ha ha," Trent mocked, "But seriously I think it's a legitimate question. I mean think about it, the future is so uncertain and you trying to predict it clears to haze a little bit."

Gwen laughed, "Well I suppose if I have to say I will be in my final year of college."

"Same." Cody agreed.

Much of the rest of the table uttered the same response, until Trent finally said, "Aw none of you guys are any fun. Don't any of you want to do something extraordinary?"

"I don't see you saying anything unique," Harold shot back.

Trent raised his hands up in defense, "Fair point. I want to be a famous rock star."

Geoff taking the initiative said, "That's cool dude! For me, I'll be partying it up big time, university style. Chicks everywhere and I'll be the king!"

Bridgette looked fairly upset with that answer, but didn't say anything. Cody understood why too. Those two had been dating for over a year now, so it was pretty insensitive of Geoff to not even consider that Bridgette would be a part of his future. That being said, no one else seemed to really consider this. That or they just didn't care.

After lunch, the group invited their two newest recruits to tag along with them the rest of the day, to which Geoff and Bridgette happily obliged. Since they were nearing the end of their day at the fair, everyone decided it was a good time to get conned out of their money via the rigged games.

Personally, Cody choose to waste his money on the classic "knock over the milk bottles" game. He paid the vendor his money and sure enough, after three throws, his money was wasted. Deciding not to try again, he wondered around seeing where the rest of his friends had gone. Harold was busy failing at the musketman game, Owen and Izzy were playing the ping pong ball in a fish bowl game, and Gwen, Noah, and Trent were competing at the "shoot the water at the targets and move your racer to the end" game. Noah had apparently won once before, as Cody could tell by the prize in front of room, and Gwen or Trent, or maybe both of them, had demanded a rematch.

Cody searched all over the rest of the mini game section of the park for Bridgette and Geoff but to no avail. Obviously he had missed them, since it wasn't very hard to get distracted with all the people and the vendor's constant attempts to get people, namely Cody, to play their games. Or maybe they had just left.

Just as he was about to give up the search and see how the rest of his friends were doing, he stumbled in on the couple. They had been standing between two booths, off to the side and obscured from view. Cody was about to make his presence known he realized they were talking, and judging by the mood, it was about something fairly serious. Not wanting to interrupt, Cody stood out of view and planned to appear when the moment felt right. He didn't particularly care to eavesdrop, but given his current situation he deemed it mandatory. How else was he supposed to know when the moment was right?

He was standing about ten feet away, so he could barely make out Geoff's voice, "Bridge you know I love you."

Bridgette sniffling, "I don't know Geoff. Do you?"

"Of course babe. You're my girl."

"Then how can you say that stuff?"

"What? My answer to Trent's question? Babe, I'm just keeping up appearances. You know you're the girl for me."

There was a silence. Then Bridgette spoke again, "So… what people think of you is more important than who you really are?"

"Well I wouldn't put it like that…."

"Then how would you say it Geoff?"

"I'm just saying all I care about is what other people think. I'm just saying it's important. I mean would you have gone out with me if I wasn't guy I am now?"

Cody could hear Bridgette actually scoff, "Of course I would Geoff. I am dating you for you! Not your rep!"

Geoff didn't respond to this. Cody didn't know if that was because he truly took this to heart or if he simply didn't know how to respond. Based off Bridgette's response, Cody guessed the later, "So you're saying you wouldn't have gone out with me if I wasn't 'cool' enough for you?!"

She was furious. All Geoff could do now was play catch up, "No babe. I'm just saying everything would be a lot different. Think about it like this. You didn't know Cody till less than a week ago and the only reason you two met was because of a fluke. Who knows if we would've ever met if I wasn't keeping up appearances? If we weren't both constantly seeing each other then we would've never gone out!"

"There aren't such things as flukes." Bridgette refuted.

Geoff, clearly confused, simply asked, "What?"

"Co—," Bridgette started before realizing that she should probably conceal Cody's identity lest Geoff get mad at him for what he had said, "A friend told me there is no such thing as a fluke and I believe them. Everything happens for a reason Geoff, including us. You and I would have found each other no matter what because that's the way the universe destined it to be."

"But Bridge, you're missing my point. If I was Cody or Harold or Noah would you still go out with me? Those guys would never have a shot with you, so what makes you think an uncool Geoff would?"

Bridgette softened her voice as if to show Geoff that she was now becoming more endearing, "Of course. I love you for you. The reason why we date is because you are the friendliest, most fun, easy-going guy I know." The two embraced before Bridgette backed up again, "Wait, what did you mean when you were talking about Noah, Harold, and Cody."

Geoff scratched his head and laughed, "All I was saying is that those guys are too… you know… dorky… to get a girl as awesome as you."

"How can you say that?" Bridgette said shocked by her boyfriend's response, "They've been nothing but nice to us today!"

"Hey don't get me wrong, I like the guys! It's just they aren't exactly the cat's meow."

"Ugh you're unbelievable," Bridgette said storming off, "I'm going back to our, sorry, my friends."

Cody didn't realize Bridgette had started walking towards him till she was three feet away. Seeing as he could not hide without being seen leaving the spot he was currently occupying (which proved his guilt almost as much as continuing to sit in his place), all he could do to avoid being caught eavesdropping was pretend to be walking towards Bridgette. This way maybe she would believe that he just happened to find them the same time she was leaving. Cody knew the solution sucked, but it was better than getting caught blatantly spying on the couple in what was clearly a moment they were only supposed to share.

He crashed into Bridgette and forced himself to fall down to sell the bit. Bridgette responded sympathetically, "Oh sorry Cody!"

She offered him a hand for help up, which he graciously accepted. Apparently his ploy had worked, though Cody did feel guilty about deceiving Bridgette. He managed to convince himself it was for the best though he couldn't help shake the feeling for the rest of the day that he had overstepped his bounds.

Over the next hour or so that the group remained at the fair, Cody couldn't really enjoy himself, not that anyone was the wiser of his feelings. He had been worried that Noah might pick up on it, but to no avail. Bridgette and Geoff had managed to put up a pretty good charade as well, and Cody guessed he was the only one that could tell something was wrong. Eventually, Geoff left giving what Cody could only assume was an excuse for his departure. This left Bridgette without a ride, though she did not seem too upset about it. Cody asked Noah if they could give her a ride home (since Noah was the one who had driven him) to which he obliged.

They finally ended up leaving the fair around 2 o'clock. After nearly 5 hours of fun, Cody, Harold, Noah, and Bridgette said their goodbyes to the rest of their group. Noah dropped Harold off first, followed by their newest companion Bridgette, until finally Noah pulled up at Cody's house. He thanked Noah for the ride and walked into his home, feeling confused about his involvement in Bridgette and Geoff's day at the fair.

Later that night, Cody was still confused, which was only amplified by a text from Bridgette. All it said was, "The fair was fun. Thanks for letting us tag along," but Cody was still not sure how to respond. He knew all about Bridgette and Geoff's fight, but she didn't know that. Should he tell her? Or should he just not mention it? He truly wanted to do the right thing. Since he was feeling so indecisive, he thought about his two options from a more in depth point of view (which he had already done nearly a hundred times today). If he were to tell Bridgette that he knew about her fight, he could help her work out her issues with Geoff and maybe the two could work things out. But she could also be really mad at him for eavesdropping which would only make the whole situation worse. If he decided to not tell her, he might get off without any repercussions, but there was also a good possibility (knowing himself) that he would accidentally say something that he wasn't supposed to know and give away that he had overheard their conversation. Bridgette had a right to know, but was she better off not knowing?

After about 20 minutes Cody responded to Bridgette's message, "Yep no prob. My friends loved you guys! Why'd Geoff have to leave so early?" Cody pressed send. He figured this was a good response. Not only did it make sure conversation didn't point towards him, it gave him hope that there was a slim chance that Bridgette would spontaneously open up to him so he didn't have to worry about his burden any longer.

His phone beeped and he viewed his new message, "Oh Geoff didn't say… But I know for a fact he was having fun."

'Dang', Cody thought to himself. So his plan for spontaneous admission on Bridgette's part had failed. Cody decided he would just ride this conversation out and see where it took him.

Right before Cody was about to start typing a new message his phone beeped again. He looked up the new text, which was again from Bridgette, "Geoff can be a little difficult sometimes. Sorry if he wasn't the most respectful person today. People don't notice it too often because of his good naturedness, but sometimes he can lack common courtesy. If only he were a little more considerate…."

Then Cody realized it. The answer to his problem was in front of him all along. He didn't have to tell Bridgette, because he would just help Geoff be a better boyfriend. That way Bridgette would forget about the fight and the point would become moot. Plus, then Cody would not feel nearly as guilty about hanging out and talking to Bridgette because not only would Geoff and Bridgette's relationship be more secure, but Geoff and Cody would become more acquainted with each other and develop some sort of friendship. He would no longer have to fear Geoff getting jealous of Bridgette and his friendship, because Geoff would know what kind of guy he was.

All Cody had to do now was find a way to properly implement his plan without letting Geoff know the motivation for his help. Eager to start mapping out a plan Cody sent Bridgette a quick text letting her know he had to go and took a seat at his desk where he drew up a strategy for mending Geoff and Bridgette's broken relationship.

Sunday went by quickly, so when Monday morning rolled around, Cody couldn't help but feel like he needed a little more time to better develop his plan. After physics class ended, he and Noah walked towards the gym, which would be the first class he would see Geoff in since the fair. It was definitely a fair statement to say that Cody was anxious, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying his hardest to make things right.

After changing into his uniform, he spotted Geoff on the opposite side of the waiting area. He was alone for the moment, so Cody saw no harm in approaching him.

Once Cody approached, Geoff looked up and greeted him, "Hey what's up man! Long time no see!"

Cody laughed nervously, "Yeah, I know right. So Geoff… how you doing?"

Geoff smiled, "Pretty good little dude."

"Ya? How's Bridgette doing?"

Geoff laughed, "I'm surprised you don't know. You've been talking to her as much as me lately."

"Yeah… sorry about that."

"No apology necessary amigo," Geoff replied, "Actually I'm kinda glad you've been talking to her."

"Yeah?"

Geoff nodded, "Lately she's stopped asking me as many questions. It's kind of a relief actually. I always have to try to think of the right answer with her."

Cody waited for Geoff to realize the error in what he just said, but after a few seconds Cody was surprised to find that Geoff apparently found no fault in his words. He tried to get Geoff to realize this by prompting questions, "But, I mean, isn't that what a boyfriend is supposed to do? Listen to his girlfriend." Geoff shrugged, but Cody was not ready to take that as an answer, "Dude, you got to do that kind of stuff if you want a girl like Bridgette."

Geoff frowned, "Yeah? You think? But I mean Bridge and I have been so good lately. We've barely fought and everything's been more chill."

He didn't know why he did it but suddenly Cody outburst, "But you haven't been good! You were fighting at the fair!"

As soon as he said it he wished he could take it back, but once it was out there Cody knew his cover was blown.

Geoff eyed him suspiciously, "And how would you know that?" All of the sudden Geoff flipped personalities completely. He went from his normal easy-going demeanor to a much more serious one, "Did Bridgette tell you! She said she wouldn't say anything!"

Cody knew he had to defend Bridgette before defending his own actions because she was the main reason he was "helping" in the first place. He retaliated quickly, "No, Bridgette didn't say anything. I sorta overheard you guys…"

"You we're eavesdropping on us dude! Not cool! Major party foul!"

Cody needed to regain control of this conversation. He explained, "Listen Geoff, yes I overheard you, but I was hoping that maybe I could help you. Now that it's no secret between us that you and Bridgette are on thin ice maybe I can be your inside man and help you skate off onto more solid ground."

Geoff contemplated this. Though he didn't look pleased by the situation, he did end up consenting to Cody's plan. Cody chalked up this up as a win. It may not have work smoothly, but it got the job done, and that was all Cody could ask for at the moment. Right after their conversation had finished, out walked Duncan Meyers towards the two of them. Not wanting to talk to the guy, Cody excused himself and said that they would talk later.

Just as he was leaving Duncan called to him, "Hey Pipsqueak where you going?"

Cody turned around to see the punk smiling. Geoff, standing behind him, had his hat over his eyes, clearly embarrassed by the situation. Cody made his way over to Duncan and asking almost inaudibly, "Yeah Duncan….?"

Duncan loved to torment kids like him. Cody didn't know what kind of sick, sadistic mind enjoyed tormenting other kids, but one thing was for sure, Duncan had one. Duncan lorded over Cody and half-laughed, half-demanded Cody tell him what he and Geoff were talking about.

Cody stammered, trying to find an excuse, because he clearly couldn't tell Duncan the actual reason for their talk, "Um, well you see Duncan, what Geoff and I were talking about… was…"

"Out with it dork!"

Duncan pulled him closer, grabbing his shirt collar and yanking it towards him. Cody was sure he was about to get punched. He hoped Geoff would say something to save him, but the party guy was either really fascinated by the inside of his hat or he didn't want to defend him. Before anything could happen though a familiar voice rang, "Lay off Duncan."

His savior was none other than Bridgette, and much to Cody's relief he felt Duncan ease off. Apparently the thug did listen to someone.

Duncan shrugged, "I was just asking the little guy a question."

Bridgette walked over, giving Duncan a face, "I'm sure. Cody are you okay."

Cody nodded, "Thanks Bridgette." He glanced over to Duncan who was grinning a wicked smile. He was sure he would pay for Bridgette's help later, but for now he was relieved.

Duncan called Geoff, who was hesitant but followed anyway, and the two walked off. Duncan bumped into Cody as he walked by and whispered so only Cody could hear, "Saved by a girl…"

Duncan may have thought that was an insult, but Cody didn't see how. A lot of guys would be embarrassed to be saved by a girl, but Cody was just pleased to be saved at all. He really couldn't care less who his savior was. He thanked Bridgette for her help which she assured him was no problem.

She asked, "So what was that about?"

Cody shrugged, "Just Duncan being Duncan."

Bridgette clearly knew there was more to the story, but decided to let it go. Knowing she was not going to get the answer from him, Bridgette excused herself saying, "I'm going to go check on Geoff. I don't know why he would hang around Duncan, especially after that. I'm sorry that Duncan did that Cody, and I'm sure Geoff is too."

Cody watched her as she departed and he finally made his way towards his own group of friends. Unfortunately, the only one of his friends that was currently at their usual meeting place was Noah who was sure to criticize and interrogate him in every way. The one hope Cody had was that Noah was reading a book, so maybe the bookworm had not witnessed the altercation.

"You're so obvious," Noah muttered as his best friend approached.

"Huh?"

"You heard me."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have any idea what you're talking about."

Noah put down his book, "Cody I may be as you claim, 'completely devoid of all human emotions', but I even I can see you drooling over Bridgette." Cody still wasn't sure what Noah was talking about. His confusion made Noah roll his eyes, "Are you seriously going to say that you didn't notice that you liked Bridgette till I told you that?"

"But I don't dude. She's Geoff's girlfriend," Cody defended.

"Be that as it may, the heart wants what the heart wants my friend."

Cody shook his head, "No man you got it wrong, we're just friends."

Noah did not seem convinced but decided to give up on the subject and returned to his book. Cody hated that Noah didn't believe him so he continued trying to convince him.

Eventually Noah put his book down, "Okay, you may deny it, but the evidence is clear. Bridgette and you went out for ice cream the day you met. Since I'm your best friend I happen to know that is one of the few times you've ever gone out anywhere alone with a girl, platonic or not. And you being you, I'm guessing you were instantly attracted by her because she actually talked to you, not to mention her looks. I'm not saying that's the only reason you like her, just the initial reason. The whole time at the fair you kept drooling over her. First, you brought her over to our group without consulting anyone on Saturday. Later, you literally left just to go find her while the rest of us played games and then when she didn't have a ride you offered it when you weren't even driving. When you open your text message screen Bridgette has been in at least the top three 'most recently texted' contacts ever since you guys began talking. And just now, the subtext was so heavy I can bludgeon you with it."

Cody wasn't sure how Noah had memorized everything that had happened between Bridgette and him in the last week, but he was impressed. He wasn't convinced, but Noah had definitely put the possibility in his head. After all, he was doing everything he was doing for Bridgette. He was even trying to save her relationship so that Bridgette could be happy.

"Even if that were true," Cody said, not giving a definitive response, "I still can't do anything about it. She's Geoff's girlfriend and I can't take that from either of them." He waited for his friend's response to which there was none. Finally Cody asked, "Subtext?"

"It's the underlying message—" Noah started.

"I know what subtext is Noah!"

Noah chuckled, "Well what I mean is that Bridgette just saved you before going off to fight her next battle. Being the good princess you are you waved goodbye and stared lustfully as your hero departed. Honestly, it's the premise of Super Mario. Countless hours of video games and comic books have trained us to believe the hero always gets the girl, I just never thought you'd be the girl in this situation."

Cody's instinct was to continue denying Noah's accusations, but something held him back. Cody didn't know if Noah was right, but at the moment he wasn't completely wrong. There was no question that Bridgette was awesome and there were a lot of things to like about her, but he couldn't help but wonder if he liked her more than he had realized. Maybe he had subconsciously suppressed his original attraction towards Bridgette because he did not want to mess up her relationship. But it wasn't that out of character for him to help someone simply because he wanted them to be happy. He gave up his crush on Gwen and helped her and Trent get together before, so why wouldn't it be the same treatment for Bridgette? He just wanted her to be happy was all; nothing more to it. But then again, with Gwen it was nothing more than physical attraction. Back then, she was nowhere near as kind and selfless as Bridgette is now. Bridgette was the coolest, nicest girl Cody had ever met. She had instantly become a really good friend of his in the time span of a week. So was Noah wrong in thinking that there might be some attraction between them? Cody just didn't know. Maybe he was just being stupid. Just because Noah had suggested the possibility, didn't mean it was true. But even with that rationale Cody couldn't stop thinking about it. With all these thoughts swirling around in his head, contradicting each other, Cody would never be able to come up with a solution.

He toyed with the idea of Bridgette and his relationship through the rest of PE and the remainder of the day, wondering what his true feelings were. He had become so deeply buried in his friendship with Bridgette that he couldn't even tell if his feelings were true, romantic attraction or it was merely friendship. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became and by the time school had ended Cody's head was ready to explode. He had a lot to think about tonight.


	5. Happy Endings

Cody was scared. That night he had resolved his feelings for Bridgette and though it might have taken a lot of time and deep contemplation, Cody had realized that his crush on Bridgette really did exist. And that scared him. His first fear was that if he were to ever act on this crush, regardless of whether Bridgette accepted it or not, he was sure to get pummeled. The popular kids would see it as stealing Geoff's girlfriend, and he knew for a fact that Duncan was ready to pounce on him given the opportunity. A much different fear, though equally as terrifying, was that he had no idea how to have a girlfriend. He didn't know what to do, how to act, or where to go. It would be a disaster. These things did not scare Cody as much, because they were only small details, but the one thing that did scare him was himself.

Ever since he took a deep look at the way he saw Bridgette, he became less and less eager to help Geoff. He wanted Bridgette to be happy, but picturing them together irked Cody the wrong way. Was that selfishness? He didn't want to be selfish. He prided himself on being someone that people could count on, not someone who people couldn't trust, but if he helped Geoff his own chance with Bridgette would dwindle. The best case scenario was that Cody's advice wouldn't work, in which case he wouldn't be able to go out with Bridgette because he would just do the wrong things. He didn't even know if Bridgette even liked him that way, but helping Geoff wasn't going to help him in the slightest.

Worst of all, he couldn't back out now. He had already made a big deal about it with Geoff, so there was no way he could refuse helping him. It would seem too suspicious if he did, not to mention that Cody tried to make it a habit to not go back on his word. So no matter how much he didn't want to, he had to help Geoff.

Halfheartedly, he looked over the plan that he had created Saturday night. It was, in his opinion, surefire. His first step, which he planned to implement tomorrow, was to talk to Geoff about how he phrased certain remarks he made when Bridgette was around. He never said anything purposely hurtful, but from the small amount of time Cody had spent with the couple, Geoff seemed to have an astounding knack for putting his foot in his mouth. Whether it be indirect insults or back handed compliments, Geoff needed to stop or else Bridgette would continue being put down, dooming their relationship.

To fix this, Cody was going to get Geoff to meet up with him at lunch tomorrow to attempt to train the guy on fixing his phrasing. Cody sent a quick text to Geoff, whose number he had gotten while at the fair, "Hey it's Cody. Meet me in the library at lunch to talk about that thing we talked about in PE today."

Soon, Geoff responded agreeing to Cody's instruction. Satisfied that his plan was in effect, Cody, having experienced enough emotional fatigue today, decided to hit the hay.

The first half of Tuesday had taken forever. Cody had never realized how long each period actually takes. 56 minutes for each class. 56 minutes! He never particularly enjoyed his classes but they were relatively tolerable before and he was never bored to the extent that he was now. He chalked this up to his anticipation for lunch. Instead of listening to his teacher's lectures, he had been running through his own lecture that he was about to give Geoff.

Once lunch finally did arrive Cody headed straight for the library. He figured this was the perfect place to help Geoff. It was private, so he and Geoff could talk one on one and not be interrupted, yet it still had enough people to seem like a normal place to go in case someone saw them. This would throw off any potential suspicion Geoff's friends might have about where he was. Also, if some people were to see it as odd for Geoff and Cody to be hanging out at lunch, it was easy enough to create an alibi. If anyone asked they could just say that Cody was tutoring Geoff and it would be a believable enough excuse.

He sat down at a table and waited for Geoff. After five minutes, he couldn't help but wonder if Geoff had remembered. After ten minutes, he was fairly certain that he had forgotten. Finally, after fifteen minutes of waiting, he figured Geoff wasn't coming. Right as he was about to leave the party dude came walking through the front door with a smile on his face. Cody was understandably pissed off.

"Dude?! Where were you?! I've been waiting forever!" Cody whisper yelled.

Geoff shrugged, "Can't we just get this started?"

Cody was still fuming, but he reminded himself that he was doing this for the greater good. He moved passed it and went straight to his lecture, "Alright Geoff, I'm not going to beat around the bush. Your relationship is in jeopardy and I'm here to help you."

Geoff nodded, though he could still tell that the guy resented him for eavesdropping on his conversation. Cody continued on, "So to do that, I think we should work on what you say."

"What I say?"

"Yes, sometimes the things that come out of your mouth, though well intentioned, can sound a little derogatory, especially to Bridgette."

"What? That's not true! Like when!" Geoff refuted.

Cody motioned for Geoff to keep his voice down, "Alright like at the fair when we first met. When we were talking about how Bridgette injured me you said and I quote, 'Cool. Guess it's a good thing you dodged the ball I threw or else it would have done some real damage.' Do you see my point?"

Geoff shook his head, "No man. What'd I do?"

Cody was amazed at the guy's denseness. He knew that Geoff didn't hear himself when he spoke, but he thought that was a problem more oriented towards his inability to censor his thoughts. Apparently he was wrong, because Geoff couldn't even find fault in his words when they were being analyzed. Cody tried to explain the error as clearly as he could, "When you say that kind of stuff it almost sounds like you're saying Bridgette isn't as good as you."

Geoff blinked, "But she isn't. Not at throwing a dodgeball."

Cody face palmed, "While that may be sure, you can't say it. It's insulting. You are belittling her accomplishment by saying you could do it better!"

Geoff nodded like he was starting to get it, "Alright I think I get what you're saying."

Cody sighed in relief, "Alright, also you can't publicly disagree with Bridgette on certain things. If it's not that important feel free to have a friendly debate, but if it's a question of something that she feels passionate about, you should definitely side with her."

"I always do man!"

Cody shook his head, "Not always. Yesterday, when Duncan was challenging me, Bridgette defended me. Duncan backed off, yet you still followed him instead of standing by your girlfriend."

Geoff's eyes opened. For a moment Cody thought he had made a breakthrough and that Geoff would finally understand everything he was saying instinctively. Sadly this was not the case. Geoff turned on Cody, "I see what this is about. You're just mad that I didn't help you. Cody this is low. Threatening my relationship just to get a bully protection service! Really man?! I thought you were cool! A little weird, but still pretty okay. Well forget it man! I knew I shouldn't have listened to you! What do you know about relationships, you've never even been in one?! You've just pined after girls, but you've never had one!" The librarian came over and shushed them but Geoff was on a roll, "You're not going to get in my head Cody for your own selfish reasons."

With that, Geoff stormed out. Cody went back to his normal group in the cafeteria and spent the rest of the day wondering what he was going to do next. His plan had failed, badly, and he definitely wasn't going to be helping Geoff with Bridgette anytime soon partly because he didn't want to and partly because Geoff hated him.

On the bright side, now he didn't have to help his rival get the girl he liked. Unfortunately, he was no closer to Bridgette either. Even though Geoff had been a jerk to him his anger was understandable. He knew Geoff was a nice guy and he normally had a pretty good hold on his emotions, so his anger likely came from the growing turmoil in his relationship with Bridgette. Cody was just some geeky kid that Geoff barely knew who had never had a girlfriend, yet felt audacious enough to give him relationship advice after eavesdropping on a private fight. In his eyes, Cody was a schmuck.

After that, Cody's life turned back to what it once was. Bridgette didn't text him, Geoff stayed far away from him, and pretty much all his friends were the same. That was, until Friday.

The day had started out rather dull. Cody was going through the motions in physics while he privately dreaded PE. He had never loved the class, but ever since Geoff's blowup, he hated PE so much more. With Geoff already so hot on him, he couldn't risk confrontation and that meant avoiding Bridgette too. The last thing he needed was for Geoff to think he ruined his relationship. That being the case, he constantly had to tiptoe around Duncan (out of fear), Geoff (out of embarrassment), and Bridgette (out of respect for her relationship).

He was snapped out of his anxiety by a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find Gwen giving him an inquisitive look. After staring for a moment she asked with a slight hint of impatience, "What are you thinking about?"

Cody was going to lie until Gwen cut him off, "Keep in mind I really don't care. We just need to get this project done ASAP, so if you've got something on your chest, fess up now."

He didn't know what it was about that response that made him fess up, but nonetheless he did. He talked about how he was afraid he had ruined Geoff and Bridgette, Geoff's blowup, and his inability to do anything further, though he did omit a few things from his explanation, such as his feelings for Bridgette, but he guessed Gwen had read through the lines just as Noah had.

Gwen listened patiently despite the looming deadline for their project, sensing that this was just a little more important to Cody. Once Cody had finished Gwen took a moment to compose her thoughts. "Aw how noble," she mocked sarcastically, "Cody you have to get over yourself. You are not that important. You haven't ruined Bridgette's relationship and even if you did it would be a favor to them. If a relationship can't survive a rough patch then it was doomed anyway. It's not your job to baby them through their problems so stop believing it is."

The words all made sense to Cody, but his conscience couldn't accept them. He put on his happy face to please Gwen, and continued his work until the bell rang. Following his schedule he walked to gym still maintaining his pseudo smile. He muddled through the period as he had all week, avoiding Geoff until it was impossible. They were playing basketball and Mr. Skinner had assigned Cody's team to play Geoff's team, which was chalk full of the people he definitely did not want to see: Duncan, Bridgette, and obviously Geoff.

Cody approached the court with his team members, Noah and Harold, to find three different emotions staring back at them. Duncan had a wicked smile plastered onto his face as he was clearly eager to stir up trouble with Cody for the other day. Geoff was boiling over with rage at just the sight of him. Bridgette, probably sensing the hostility of her two teammates, could only look regretfully at Cody and his position.

"Hey Cody…" Bridgette greeted softly, unsure if it was okay to talk.

It was not. Geoff turned to Bridgette with a look that said, 'Do not talk to him ever again.'

It then occurred to Cody that she probably didn't know why Geoff was so angry at Cody. Geoff probably didn't want to admit that the reason he was fuming is that he blew up at Cody at a time when Cody was giving him lessons on how to treat his girlfriend. He had likely just told Bridgette not to talk to Cody, and that was why she had not texted him since the incident.

It was still dead silent between the six teens when finally Harold broke the silence, "Gosh! Why's everyone so quiet?"

Duncan chuckled, "Oh dweeb, you are so going down."

Cody knew Duncan was not talking about the basketball game, but Harold was obviously not as perceptive. He tried to respond, before Noah side arm punched him in the gut, effectively shutting up the nerd. From then on, they all, even Harold, let the silence linger until Mr. Skinner finally blew his whistle signifying that the teams should start their individual games.

Cody started out with the ball and after a few dribbles Geoff stole it, pushing Cody a little too aggressively in the process. Cody wasn't going to say anything, so everyone else seemed to let it go as well. Geoff was a good 8 inches taller than him and probably had at least 60 pounds on him as well, so it was already unfair to have Cody guard him. Add in a vendetta on Geoff's part, and Cody was sure he would be killed. Geoff, now on offense, drove down the lane and made a quick lay-up, pushing Cody down on what would have been a borderline foul had this been a real game. Geoff and Duncan did not seem to mind though as they were already celebrating their first of what was sure to be many, many points. Cody looked at Bridgette to see her disgusted and confused by Geoff's behavior. She looked at Cody, but he turned away before she could establish eye contact.

They continued play where Cody's new strategy was to pass the ball off as soon as he got it to ensure as little chance as possible getting bulldozed by Geoff. This did not stop the abuse. It was like Geoff was trying to find opportunities to antagonize Cody. In fact, Cody was sure he was. The problem was Bridgette noticed too.

After countless instances of Geoff purposefully shoving, elbowing, and fouling Cody, Bridgette had seen enough. While Duncan and Geoff were high-fiving and celebrating with the ball over another dirty point Bridgette walked up to the duo and demanded, "What are you guys doing?!"

Duncan smiled, "Whatever do you mean?"

Geoff was a little more anxious about his girlfriend's question, "Just… having fun Bridge!"

"Well some of us aren't feeling the same way," Bridgette said gesturing towards Cody who was being helped up off the floor by Noah.

Cody could still see the hatred in Geoff's eyes as he attempted to answer Bridgette's question as coolly as he could. Unfortunately for him, this just resulted in a lot of stammering which might as well of just admitted his guilt. Bridgette abruptly cut him off, "How can you not have an answer Geoff? You've been abusing Cody like a ragdoll and you won't even tell me why! I don't know you when you act this way!"

Watching this couple fight revealed a lot to Cody. First and foremost it made him understand how much animosity Geoff felt towards him. Cody had realized he had really pissed the guy off, but to hold a grudge this deep for this long was just unnatural.

The second, and more subtle thing that he picked up on was that Bridgette truly cared for him. She was willing to stand up to her boyfriend on his behalf and defend him like he was some kind of childhood friend, when in reality she had just met him last week. Her loyalties weren't being clouded by personal relationships. She stood up for what she believed was right and at the moment, that seemed to mean Cody.

Bridgette continued to lob accusations at Geoff, to which he was unable to retaliate. Soon, the dispute became about more than just Cody it became about their relationship in general. He noticed that by not playing they were starting to attract the much unneeded attention of Mr. Skinner. No doubt, within a couple seconds he would come over and yell at them to continue their game without realizing the situation at hand.

With no end to the argument in sight, Cody had no idea what to do. Geoff and Bridgette were slowly becoming a train wreck and as boxcar after boxcar toppled over each other it was becoming harder and harder for Cody to pretend like he wasn't paying attention to the soap opera behind him.

Kids started to look. Cody panicked. He didn't know why he panicked, as he had no reason to, but nonetheless he did.

He rushed up to the bickering couple and tried to mediate, but before he could Bridgette, in outrage shouted, "That's it Geoff, I can't deal with you being so heartless! We're through!"

Geoff screamed, "Fine, see if I care!"

He took the basketball that he had in his hands and with one hand palming the ball he threw it on the ground with all of his might. Unfortunately for Cody, the ball ricocheted off the hardwood gym floor and hit Cody's face in almost exactly in the same place his now ex-girlfriend hit him in last week: right between the eyes, pushing against his nose. Funny thing was that as much as Geoff probably wanted to hit him, he didn't think this was intentional. Thinking back to their time at the fair, Cody realized that Geoff had been right about one thing, when he threw the ball at Cody it hurt a lot more than when Bridgette did (thought the fact that these were basketballs probably also had something to do with that).

Cody flew down backwards onto the floor so quickly he hadn't even realized he had been hit until a he was flat on his back and his head shot with pain. A vague, familiar feeling started to overcome him which he soon identified as another black out. All the telltale signs were there: migraine, hazy vision, and abnormal amount of people crowding around his nearly unconscious body. Cody gave in to the feeling and seemingly with a blink of the eye, he had transported from the gym floor to the same hospital bed he frequented last week.

Cody sat up, rubbing the space between his eyes, "Ugh Déjà vu."

It was then that he noticed he had a visitor, scratch that, two visitors. The first he clearly identified as the nurse who was apparently taking care of him. The second he would soon make out to be none other than Bridgette who was sitting in a chair next to his sickbed. Bridgette didn't say anything but only stood up before the nurse quickly came over to examine Cody and pushed her back down into her seat.

Once the examination was finished the nurse concluded that Cody had one of the thickest skulls she had ever seen and there wasn't any serious problems, maybe just a slight concussion. Cody wasn't sure how to take that thick skulled comment, but at the moment he had more pressing matters to worry about.

Bridgette had watched the whole procedure and had still not said a word. Attempting to lighten the mood Cody asked light-heartedly, smiling as he said it, "So you think they have like a frequent fliers program for this place?"

It was then that Bridgette sobbed struggling to get out the words, "I-I'm sorry C-Cod-dy!"

He had no idea what Bridgette was talking, much less crying, about. Why was she apologizing? Cody was the one who should be saying sorry, not Bridgette. Yet she was the one with tears streaming down her cheeks.

""Bridgette, what are you sorry about?"

"Geoff hit you with the ball because I broke up with him. If I would have-"

Bridgette was cut off by Cody who had taken her shoulders and pulled them in for a hug. Cody knew that Bridgette didn't truly believe it was her fault for what happened. She was just pushing blame on herself to give her a reason to cry other than Geoff. She had been with that guy for a long time and cutting ties like that must have been painful. Instead of trying to talk out the guilt, Cody just let the moment linger. He could feel Bridgette crying on his shoulder, but after a minute or so it started to die down.

Bridgette finally got up and looked at Cody. Her voice must have been hoarse because she was barely able to say, "Thank you."

Cody smiled, exposing his goofy gap tooth grin, "Any time Bridgette."

"I am sorry," she repeated. She had managed to get her voice back and regain her composure, though she was still shaky.

Cody waved it off, "You have nothing to apologize for. I on the other hand do."

She gave him an inquisitive look. Cody elaborated, "I'm sorry because I was part of the reason you and Geoff… broke up." She glared at him looking for further explanation. Sighing he continued, "Ever since I met you we have talked, texted, and gotten to know each other pretty well. I didn't realize it then but by doing this I was hurting your relationship by disconnecting you and Geoff. At the fair I heard you guy's fight and instead of ignoring it I eavesdropped. You were fighting about our group which never would have happened if we didn't meet. Your conflict was my fault. I tried to help by coaching Geoff into treating you better, but I just made things worse by enraging him. That's why he was so mean today. And because he was so mean, you broke up with him. I am the reason you broke up. I'm sorry Bridgette, I hope you can forgive me, but if you can't I understand."

Bridgette was quiet for a while. Cody wasn't sure if she was simply trying to contain her rage or if she was holding in another cry. He could only wait. Finally Bridgette spoke clearly "Listen Cody, people are sent into our life for a reason. You can't wonder 'what if this happened', or 'what if that happened' because the fact is we never get answers that way. What happened is what happened and that's how we have to live by it. You're in my life because it was meant to be. It was destiny. So don't try to take yourself out of my life no matter how noble your intentions. Don't blame yourself for our breakup because it isn't your fault, it was destiny. If I'm being completely honest it's been a long time coming, long before I ever met you."

The room was quiet. He was taking in everything she had just said. Gwen had told him that it wasn't his fault and he didn't believe her, but when Bridgette said it he realized it was true. This time Bridgette was the one to break the silence, whispering, "So do you think the nurse has been behind the curtains listening to us this whole time?"

They both laughed. Just like that, all of Cody's guilt from the past week had disappeared. They talked, though the conversation was not all that upbeat. Bridgette was obviously still upset about her breakup and there was still a lot of crying left to do. Eventually, the nurse pulled back the curtains (which caused Bridgette and Cody to burst out laughing) and told Cody his dad was coming to pick him up. Apparently he had not been happy to learn that Cody had sustained yet another head injury and decided to take him home before he could hurt himself even more. Bridgette left soon, but not before ordering Cody to give her his address so she could visit after school, to which he obliged.

Sure enough, his dad walked into the office ten minutes later, and together the father and son walked out to the car and drove home.

He bided his time at home, watching TV until school was over. Not only Bridgette, but many of his friends had told him via text they would be visiting. The first to arrive was Noah (who had surely rushed to get his kicks in before anyone could condemn him for it), followed by Gwen and Trent, then Bridgette, and finally Owen, Harold, and Sierra.

Once everyone was there Cody spoke up, "So, uh, thanks guys for visiting me. I'm gonna be out of action this whole weekend. Dad's orders."

"Aw that sucks dude. I'll be sure to come visit you again. Nothing's worse than being stuck at home with nothing to do." Trent promised.

"Agreed. And I'll come visit you in the mornings." Bridgette added.

"We'll visit him in the mornings," Sierra said stressing the 'we'. Clearly, she didn't trust Bridgette yet and didn't want to leave her alone with her little 'Codykins'.

"And we'll cook you a big lunch!" Owen said getting into the spirt, "Right Gwen?"

Gwen clearly hadn't been told she was being roped into this till this very moment. She sighed, accepting her new role, "Sure I guess. Someone's got to make sure you don't eat everything we make."

"So I guess that leaves Harold and me for night duty," Noah said.

"Yes!" Harold fist pumped, "Video game marathon time!"

Cody was taken aback by his friend's generosity. They were all willing to donate some of their time to help Cody's recuperation be more eventful. He was almost happy he had been injured. All he could say to sum up his feelings was, "Thank you guys."

It was sad to say but this was shaping up to be the busiest Saturday in Cody's life and he wasn't even going to leave the house. Never before had every second of his day been consumed with activity.

After all of that had been settled, they had fun passing the time together. They joked and laughed and just had a good time in general. Eventually everyone had to leave. The first to go were Trent and Owen (who both had to be somewhere), followed by Gwen and Bridgette, and finally Noah, Harold, and Sierra.

Sure enough, Bridgette and Sierra stopped by in the morning. He had expected this, but what was strange to him was the fact that they arrived together. He wondered how that car ride had gone. In a moment he would know.

The knock on the door came and within seconds Cody answered. They obviously were not expecting this quick response because Sierra was seemingly still finishing a thought, "… on my Codykins!"

The two girls stared at Cody, standing in the door frame, probably wondering how much he had heard. Cody decided to bypass questioning altogether and ignored what he had heard (which wasn't much) and pretend like he hadn't hear it at all. He smiled and gestured for them come inside.

The three of them sat down at the dining room table with Cody on one side and the two girls on the other. Bridgette opened up the discussion, "So Cody how's your head feel today?"

"Same as always. I feel fine but my dad still requires me to be on bedrest."

"No thanks to you," Sierra muttered quietly. All three of them could still hear it, but neither Bridgette nor Cody had the courage to call her on this passing remark.

Instead Bridgette picked up from where Cody left off, "That's good. I was really worried."

"WE were really worried," Sierra said stressing the first word.

Cody laughed, "Well thank you for your concern. Both of you."

Sierra smiled, "Don't worry Cody I'm always looking out for you, unlike the Cody-beater."

Bridgette responded in the defensive, "I told you Sierra I am not a Cody-beater!"

Cody groaned at the utterance of the word Sierra had created a little over a week ago. He had feared something like this would happen. The two girls bickered for a while during which time Cody tried to stomp out the flames. This fight must have been continued from a fight they had had in Bridgette's car. Seeing that his more peaceful methods weren't effective, Cody decided to get confrontational.

"Enough!" he shouted before Sierra could hurl another accusation against Bridgette, "Sierra you have got to know that Bridgette didn't intentionally hurt me!"

"Once a Cody-beater, always a Cody-beater," Sierra responded defiantly, crossing her arms.

Cody was about to go off on the girl before Bridgette put her hand up to stop him. She then, in a much calmer tone than the one Cody had been preparing, clarified, "Sierra, I know you have the best intentions for Cody, but so do I. Yes, I hurt Cody before, so by that definition I am a Cody-beater but it was totally an accident. You have to believe me. I just want to be his friend. And your friend too."

This speech must have touched Sierra on some level, because she stopped. After a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence Sierra finally spoke, "I'm sorry Bridgette."

With that apology things started to pick up. Conversation begun again and Bridgette and Sierra started to forge a bond that seemed like it might become friendship. Together, they laughed and talked for the duration of their visit.

After they left, Owen and Gwen arrived 15 minutes later with cheese, bread, and two cans of soup. Much to Cody's delight, their delicacy for the afternoon would be grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's Tomato Soup. Owen brought the meal to the kitchen and Cody got out the necessary cooking equipment to both make grilled cheese and open a can of soup. They had decided that Gwen would handle the soup while Owen handled the sandwiches, and did their respective duties as such.

"Quite the gourmet meal we have here." Cody said laughing.

"Hey you can't go wrong with the classics." Gwen said defending her choice, "And we don't really know how to make much else."

Once the food was ready, the three of them sat down at the same table that Cody had just been at with Bridgette and Sierra. They all finished their food quickly and cleaned up the mess they had made in the kitchen. Gwen and Owen stuck around for a while but eventually they left as well. Trent stopped by later that day and hung around for a while, but couldn't stay for long. After his visit, Cody had a couple hours to himself.

Later came video game marathon night with Harold and Noah. The duo arrived at about 5:30 and they all retreated back to Cody's room where his Gamecube was set up. Cody popped in Mario Kart and booted up the game. Four races in, Harold had to go to the bathroom, so they took him out of the next race and started it up again.

Once he left the room, Noah, not looking up from his screen, asked, "So Cody? What's happening with Bridgette?"

"What do you mean?" Cody responded absent mindedly keeping his focus in game.

"I mean now that she and Geoff are broken up are you going to ask her out?"

Cody responded, "Naw, she's probably still pretty broken up about Geoff."

"Was that a pun?" he asked unamused.

Cody half responded, half hoped Noah wouldn't punch him, "No?"

Noah sighed and pushed the question aside in favor of a new one, "So what you're just going to wait?"

"Pretty much."

"But you do admit now that you like her?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

Noah paused the game, "My point is Cody that you have to take this opportunity while it still presents itself. While you wait some other jerk guys are narrowing in on Bridgette with no regard to her feelings."

"But if I rush it Noah then I'm the jerk guy who swoops in with no regard to her feelings."

"Bullshit. She knows you Cody. She knows you and obviously likes you."

Cody's ears perked up, "She likes me?"

"Woah down boy. I meant like in the platonic way but I wouldn't put it past her either." Noah explained. Then he smiled, "But this is exactly what I mean. Your heart skipped a beat just at the thought of her liking you in any sort of romantic way."

Cody sighed, "Listen man… I don't want to rush things on this. She needs time and I just got to be patient. I can't afford to ask her out after just re-establishing our friendship."

"Sounds like a good reason… if you want to sabotage yourself. I know you want to Cody, you just keep putting up roadblocks that don't need to be there."

Cody paused, "Even if I did she would probably say no."

Noah could see he was starting to get through to his best friend, "What matters is what you want and you can't get what you want till you ask for it. So stop being a wuss and just ask for it."

Before Cody could respond appropriately, Harold emerged from the bathroom with the declaration, "That was the biggest dump I've ever taken!"

Noah muttered under his breath, "Kind of like the dump you just took on our conversation."

"What?"

"Nothing Harold." Noah said covering up his remark.

Cody would have laughed if he wasn't already thinking about so much. The rest of the video game marathon went by in a blur. It was all fun but eventually Noah and Harold had to leave, leaving Cody alone with his thoughts.

Just like the morning before, Bridgette came over, though this time without Sierra. Cody found this odd. Sierra was more liable to never leave his side than miss an opportunity to be around him, but Bridgette explained that while she was waiting outside Sierra's house to pick her up for their visit she texted her that she couldn't make it, and would come over that afternoon. Evidently, she trusted Bridgette enough after yesterday, and allowed her to come over for a visit on her own.

His dad was gone at the moment along with both of his brothers so Cody had the house to himself. A lot of parents wouldn't have left their teenage son home alone when they knew that he had a girl coming over, but Cody guessed his dad did not expect much out of him. Either that or he was now Cody's wingman. Both thoughts were equally as depressing.

Cody wasn't really sure what to do until Bridgette sat down at the table they had occupied the day before. In a stroke of brilliance (and hunger) Cody told her he would get them both a piece of cake that was in the refrigerator. He came back with two plates in hand, both with their very own slice of cake. He handed one plate to Bridgette and kept the other for himself and sat down opposite from Bridgette on the other side of the table. Before he even sat down half of his cake was gone and frosting covered his face.

Bridgette giggled, "Hungry?"

"Um… if I said no would you believe me?"

"No."

"Then yes. You gonna eat that?"

"You're starting to sound like Owen."

Cody shrugged. The moment was almost too good to be real. Here he was joking around with a beautiful girl. And she was laughing! And she wasn't laughing at him! This truly was the dream. This moment of elation didn't last long though. Noah's message slowly started to seep from his subconscious to the forefront of his thoughts. The bookworm's words rang in Cody's head, '_While you wait some other jerk guys are narrowing in on Bridgette with no regard to her feelings.' _

Noah was right about one thing, Bridgette wouldn't be on the market for long. Soon, plenty of suitors would hear the news of her breakup and be after her before Cody could blink an eye. This was Cody's best chance to beat the crowd. But was now the right time? Would any time be the right time? What if Bridgette still needed time to heal? She almost undoubtedly did. No one gets over a breakup this quickly. Even if she did say yes would her heart be in it? As a friend, he knew he had to be there for Bridgette during this time and not make things about himself, but as a potential boyfriend he had to see the upside of striking quickly. If he asked her though, she could see him as just another jerk. But she knew him better than that right? She knew that Cody wasn't going to hurt her and that he truly did care, right?

There were too many questions in Cody's head. What all of it really boiled down to was whether Cody was ready to forsake his own feelings for Bridgette's feelings and potentially lose her or whether he was willing to take a risk that could possibly hurt Bridgette further, but had the upside of maybe making both of them happy. It was a tough call, but it was one that Cody had to make here and now.

He considered both of his options. Normally, he would sacrifice himself, but he had been doing that all week and look what had happened because of it. Nothing but inner turmoil and self-blame. For once Cody decided to take charge. He decided to take the chance and gamble on the possibility that Bridgette reciprocated his feelings.

"You okay Cody?" Bridgette asked shaking him, "Is your head alright?"

"Never better," he responded with a smile, "Hey Bridgette, um, I wanted to ask you something."

She tilted her head to the side, "Yeah? What's on your mind?"

"Well you see we've been spending a lot of time together recently…."

"Yeah…?"

"And I really like being with you…"

He looked up. Bridgette had a smirk on her face, "Your point being?"

Cody gave up the pretense that she didn't know what he was about to ask, "Come on Bridgette, this is hard enough as it is." She had obviously figured it out, now it was all a matter of getting the question out. She agreed to remain civil and Cody continued, "Would you, Bridgette Young, like to go out on a date wi—?"

He was cut off by Bridgette's embrace, "Of course I will Cody."

"Really?!"

Bridgette smiled and nodded, laughing at Cody's jubilation. Cody was beside himself. Not only had he actually asked the girl of his dreams out, but she had said yes so quickly that he hadn't even finished the question. Though, despite his happiness, one question still lingered in his mind.

"Bridgette," he asked, "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth but are you sure you don't need more time to get over Geoff? I can wait if you need to."

"Did you just call me a horse?" Bridgette joked.

"Bridgette…" Cody stared sympathetically. He was not going to let this turn into a joke. It was too important.

Bridgette looked away for a second before turning back to him, "This is why I said yes to you Cody, besides the fact that you're adorable when you squirm. Because you really do care. You're the sweetest guy I've ever known and ever since we met all you've done is wonder about my feelings. Now I'll have a chance return the favor. It may take me a little while to get over Geoff, but at least now we can do it together."

He took Bridgette's hand and grinned wider than he ever had before. He had finally taken initiative on his own behalf and he was better off for it.

The past few weeks had not gone according to plan, and he was glad they hadn't. If they had Bridgette and Geoff would still be in a stressed filled relationship while Cody watched disheartened from afar. Somehow though, fate had other plans and brought them together. Two weeks ago they hardly knew each other, but a single game of dodgeball had changed everything. Getting knocked out by a girl in a PE dodgeball game would be humiliating in any other context, but in hindsight, it was one of the best things that had ever happened to Cody. It had been a true blessing in disguise.

* * *

><p><strong>So that's it. Thank you to everyone you stuck with the story and read to the end. I hope you enjoyed.<strong>


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